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EXECUTIVE MANSION. 
WASHINGTON, O C. 



ApriJ 21st 
My dear Sir : 

I have received an artist's 
proof of your engraved portrait of myself. 
I consider it a faithful likeness and a splen- 
did work of art. 

Yours very truly. 




:^^^immmmmmtKmmatmBmftM 



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il 



A MEMORIAL VOLUME OF 
AMERICAN HISTORY 

McKINLEY 

AND MEN OF OUR TIMES 

TOGETHER WITH 

THE GREAT QUESTIONS 

WITH WHICH THEY HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED AND 

WHICH ARE STILL PRESSING FOR 

SOLUTION 



BY 

Edward Leigh Pell, D. D. 
James W. Buel, Ph. D. 
James P. Boyd, a. M., LL. B. 

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 

General Fitzhugh leb 



HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 

1901 






LIBRARY of CONGRESSJ 


Two Copies 


Received 


NOV 10 


1904 


eopyritfni tntry 

CLASS O. XXc No: 

COPY 6. 



Copyright 1901 

BY 
J. W. BUEL 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

THE WORLD SHOULD KNOW (Introduction) 29 

WILLIAM McKINLEY. 

L As We Knew Him.— Mr. McKinley Was One of Us— Love 
for His Wife and Mother— The Old, Old Story— His 
Affection for Little Children— Care for the Old Soldiers— 
His High Sense of Honor— Above Envy— Making Others' 
Wishes His Own— Cherished No 111 Feelings— The In- 
carnation of Courtesy— A High Type of Courage— A 
Devout Christian — Taking His Measure 81 

II. A Good Beginning.— The McKmleys— Well Born— "A Good 
Boy" — A Playmate's Testimony— Mother McKinley — 
Humble Circumstances — At School 89 

III. A Youthful Soldier.— How He Enlisted— A Tribute from 

His Superior Officer— A Heroic Deed— A Fearful Risk 
— A Charmed Life— Gallantry and Military Skill— His 
Promotions g^ 

IV. Chooses the Law.— Studies at the Albany Law School- 

Finds a Partner— A Bow-Legged Plaintiff— Elected 
Prosecuting Attorney 99 

V. Chooses a Wife.— A Real Love Story— Early Sorrows- 
Death of Their Children — Mrs. McKinley 103 

VI. Chosen for Public Service.— "A Country Politician" — 
One of His Early Efforts — "Introduced into Politics" — 
Elected to Congress — Blaine's Impressions of the Young 
Representative— At the Feet of "Pig-Iron" Kelley— In 

Politics to Stay 106 

(19) 



20 Contents. 



VII. A Brilliant Congressional Record. — Exhibits Marked 
Parliamentary Ability — True to His Friends — Leadership 
in the Tariff Debate — Scrupulous Honor — A Remarkable 
Speech — Waives Aside a Presidential Nomination Which 
Might Have Been His — A National Figure — The Mc- 
Kinley Tariff — His Frankness — Defeated for Congress.. no 

VHI. Governor of Ohio. — Nominated by Acclamation — A Credit- 
able Record — His Financial Misfortune — Elected to a 
Second Term ii8 

IX. As A Campaigner. — A Remarkable Campaign — Breaks the 
Record — His Powers of Endurance— Remembered Faces 
Well — Always Approachable — A Man of the People.... 121 

X. As AN Orator. — A Happy Faculty — Some Noble Sentiments 
— Not a Humorist but Fond of a Joke — One of His Own 
— A Town Without a Cuspidor — "Bossing the President" 
— His Intense Conviction 126 

XL The Presidential Campaign of '96. — The Logical Candi- 
date — The Chicago Convention — Mark Hanna — Mr. Mc- 
Kinley at Home During the Convention — How He Re- 
ceived the News of His Nomination — William J. Bryan — 
A Peculiar Situation — Sixteen to One — Growth of Sound 
Money Sentiment — A Reluctant Champion of Gold.... 131 

XII. President of All the People. — In Touch with the Plain 
People — A Faculty for Making Friends — On Good Terms 
with Both Parties in Both Houses — He Loved the 
Familiar Greetings of the Crowds — Enjoying a Mob — 
Selecting His Cabinet — In the Hands of the Reporters — 
The Dingley Act— His Methods of Work 137 

XIII. The Spanish War and After. — Controversy Over the 

Treatment of Cuba by Spain — Disaster to the "Maine" — 
Holding out Against the Inevitable — His Message on the 
Cuban Question — Grounds of Intervention — The War 
and Its Results — Dewey's Victory — The Policy of Expan- 
sion — Mr. McKinley's Review of the War — The Filipinos 144 

XIV. A Second Term. — Nominated for a Second Term Without 

Opposition — Looking Backward — Pledges Kept — The 
Tariff — Our Island Possessions — Moving in Untried 



Contents. 21 



PAGE 

Paths — Foreign Trade — Outlook for Reduction of Taxes 
— Extending Foreign Commerce — A Maritime Canal — 
Monopolies — Encouraging Labor — Elected by the Largest 
Popular Vote Ever Given to a Candidate 155 

XV. His Greatest Service to the Nation. — His Dearest Wish 
—A Union in Reality— The Right Man at the Right Mo- 
ment — His Commission of Peace — He Knew the South — 
His Recognition of Southern Patriotism — The Welding 
of the Nation 167 

XVL His Guardian Angel. — The Appeal of Frailty — His Wife 
His Inspiration — A Beautiful Tribute — Lovers to the End 
— Mrs. McKinley's Most Distinguishing Traits — Her 
Love for Little Children, Flowers and Music — Feminine 
in All Her Traits — Crochet 'ng Dainty Little Slippers by 
the Thousand — Her Everyday Life — A New Side to Her 
Character 173 

XVH. McKinley's Home Life. — The Unpretentious Cottage in 
Canton — Humble Beginning — He Cherished Her — Modest 
Social Tastes — Mother McKinley's Faith in Her Son. .. . 180 

XVin. His Last Speech. — At the Buffalo Exposition — Expositions 
Time-Keepers of Progress — A Broad and Enlightened 
Policy — A Mutual Exchange of Commodities — The 
Pressing Problem — Need of Direct Commercial Lines to 
New Fields — A Tribute to Blaine — Immortal Words... 185 

XIX. The Shot That Shocked the World. — Tour Across the 
Continent — Would not Accept a Nomination for a Third 
Term if Tendered — President's Day at the Buffalo Expo- 
sition — The Tragedy — A Modern Iscariot — A Sublime 
Exhibition of Moral Grandeur — A Crazed Multitude — 
The Assassin — The Wound — "Thy Will Be Done" — A 
Terror-Stricken People — How the News Was Received 
Throughout the World 189 

XX. A World in Tears. — The Rise and Fall of Hope — Apparent 
Improvement Followed by Alarming Signs — Growing 
Rapidly Worse — "I Want to See the Trees" — "Nearer, 
My God, to Thee"— "It's God's Way; His Will be Done" 
— The Nation Mourns— England Profoundly Moved — 
Sorrow on the Continent — Sorrow Everywhere 197 



22 



Contents, 



XXI. The Last Sad Rites. — Senator Hanna's Farewell — Lying 
in State — The Start for Washington — The Last Night 
in the White House — The State Funeral — A Touching 
Tribute — No Stain Upon His Escutcheon— A Last Look 
— The Last Journey — Sorrowing Onlookers — Home 
Again — All Canton Grief-Stricken — Italian Workmen 
Pray for the Dead President's Soul — The Last Rest 201 

XXII. A Marvelous Tribute. — All the Great Activities of Ameri- 
can Life Cease as the Casket is Placed in the Vault — 
Services in Westminster Abbey — Salutes on Distant Seas 214 

XXIII. Personal Recollections. — Mr. Charles M. Pepper — Senator 

McLaurin — Congressman Hall — A Watchman's Story — 

The Boy Reporter of the New York World 219 

XXIV. What the World Thought of Him. — Estimates by Presi- 

dent Roosevelt, President Diaz, Cardinal Gibbons, Grover 
Cleveland, Andrew Carnegie, General John B. Gordon, 
Attorney-General Griggs ; Governors Beckham, Geer, 
Candler, Heard, Toole, Tyler, Hunn, Jordan, Vorhees, 
Odell ; D. B. Hill ; Senators Hoar, Dolliver, Clay, Pettus, 
Cockrell, Burrows, Foraker, Piatt; Representatives 
Sulzer, Sherry, Champ Clark; Honorable Hoke Smith, 
John Wanamaker, Mayor Mims, Joseph H. Manley, 
Judge Emory Spear, H. St. George Tucker, Secretary 
John D. Long, President Venable 233 

XXV. The National Affliction, by Hon. William J. Bryan. — An 
Attack Upon the Whole People— No Man Dieth Unto 
Himself — Government a Necessity — Mr. McKinley's 
Influence as a Statesman — The Best Things in Life Are 
Above Politics 257 

XXVI. The Assassin. — Czolgosz's Confession — The Trial — A 

Memorable Speech — Conviction — Sentenced to Death..,. 261 

XXVII. Lessons of the Tragedy, by David Starr Jordan, President 

Leland Stanford, Jr., University 267 

XXVIII. The Assassination of Lincoln. — Danger Days for the Re- 

public — Effects of War Upon the Public Conscience — 
Thin Line of Separation Between Civilization and 
Savagery — Great Sorrow in the South — Expression of 
Grief by Jefferson Davis — Lincoln is Warned of His 
Fate in a Dream — The Deed of the Assassin — Death of 



Contents. 23 

PAGE 

Booth and Execution of His Co-Conspirators — Secret 
Disposition of Booth's Remains — Beecher's Oration on 
Lincohi 273 

XXIX. The Assassination of Garfield.— Use of the Pistol in the 
Assassination of Presidents — Why Is the "Rifle not Pre- 
ferred? — Certain Capture Awaits the Criminal — Every 
Man's Hand Against Assassins — Murder Personified — 
The Shooting of Garfield— His Brave Battle with Death 
— The Trial of Guiteau — His Execution and the Disposi- 
tion of His Remains — Blaine's Oration on Garfield 279 

THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

XXX. Our Hero President.— Dauntless Rulers of History— Great 
Events Bring Forth Men to Meet Them— The Gloom 
and Anguish of Our Nation — The Accession of Roosevelt 
Restores Confidence — How Greatness Masks Itself — 
Roosevelt's Napoleonic Traits — His Important Literary 
Productions — His Political Epigrams — His Birth and 
Ancestry — The Allotment Commission — Sterling Char- 
acter of the Elder Roosevelt — Theodore as a Boy — His 
College Life — Climbing the Peaks of Switzerland — His 
Career as an Author 303 

XXXI. Roosevelt's Entry into Politics. — Attends His First 
Primary — Elected to the New York Assembly — A 
Knock-Down Fighter — How He Fought Corruption — 
Great Savings Effected to the State — Delegate to the 
National Convention — Enters the Campaign — Life on the 
Frontier — His Ranch in Dakota — He Subdues a Des- 
perado — Career as a Civil Service Commissioner — Police 
Commissioner of New York — Assistant Secretary of the 
Navy — Organizes a Regiment of Rough Riders — Off for 
the War — Seizes a Train — The Invasion of Cuba — In the 
Thick of Action — In the Bloody Angle on San Juan Hill 
— His Magnanimity and Patriotism — How He Enter- 
tained His Cowboy Comrades — A Hero in the Eyes of 
All Men 3^3 

XXXII. Roosevelt Succeeds to the Presidency. — His Grief Over 
the Nation's Bereavement — Optimistic and Ever Hopeful 
— How He Received the Tidings of the President's Death 
— His Wild Ride Through Stygian Darkness of the 



24 Contents. 



PAGE 



Adirondack Forest — He Takes the Oath of Office as 
President — Pledges Himself in a Memorable Utterance 
— Retention of McKinley's Cabinet — All Fear of a 
Threatened Panic Averted — The Domestic Life of 
Roosevelt — Fireside Afifection — Mrs. Roosevelt a Noble 
Helpmate — Ladies of the White House 322 

Roosevelt the Man and the Executive. — His Marvel- 
ously Active Mind — Physical Culture That Overcame 
His Deficiencies of Body — Impulsiveness Prompted by 
Intuition — His Resemblance to Andrew Jackson — The 
Elements That Make Him Truly Great — Love of Wife 
and Home Z^l 

Roosevelt as a Soldier. — How He Earned His Title — 
— The Blood of North and South in His Veins— His 
Enlistment in the Army — Composition of His Regiment 
of Rough Riders — The Fierce Charge up San Juan 
Hill — A Mighty Stimulation to American Soldiers — 
Promotion and Subsequent Services — Devotion to His 
Men 330 

ANARCHY. 

Banner of the Red Terror. — The World Savage, and the World 
Civilized — Mobocracy in the French Revolution — History 
Shows Us the Effects of Anarchy — What the Abrogation of 
All Laws Signifies — What Is Anarchy? — Theory of Hegel and 
Proudhon — Schools of Anarchy — Contentions of Socialists — 
Differences Between Socialism and Anarchism — Picture 
Drawn by Ideal Socialism — The License to Prey and to Slay 
— Why Anarchy Cannot Prevail — Instructive Examples — 
A Popular Fallacy — Tyranny and Limited Monarchy — The 
Uselessness of Assassination — Torture Does not Change 
Men's Convictions — Assassination Is Purposeless Vengeance 
— Murder of Rulers the Past Twenty Years — Good Men 
Made Victims, While Tyrants Escape — The Very Cap-Sheaf 
of Crime — Human Freedom Wounded by Madness — The 
Awe That a King Inspires — The Superstition of Divine Right 
of Kings — Some Very Striking Examples — Familiarity 
Breeds Contempt — Wherein Lies a Ruler's Influence — 
Dangers That Follow Familiarity — American Politics Hurtful 
to Self-Respect — Can We Wonder That Presidents are Assas- 
sinated? — How We May Protect Our Presidents — Swift 
Enforcement of Law 2>2>1 



Contents. 35 



OUR COLONIES. 



PAGE 



How Acquired and the Policy of Government. — The Cry of 
"America for Americans" — Necessity of Acquisitipns of 
Territory — Story of Our Annexations — The Louisiana and 
Florida Purchases — The Retrocession of Louisiana — Jefferson 
Condemned by Federalists — War with the Seminoles — The 
Acquisition of Texas — War with Mexico — The Gadsden 
Treaty — Purchase of Alaska — Our Pacific Ocean Colonies 
— Opposition of the Anti-Imperialists — Government of Our 
Island Possessions — Constitutional Questions Involved — 
Dangers of Free Trade Being Forced Upon the Country — 
A Question as to Hawaiian Rights — Two Horns of a 
Dilemma 350 

THE INCOME TAX. 

Promise of a Party Demand for an Income Tax. — The Policy of Re- 
ciprocity a Vital Issue — Free Trade a Natural Sequence of 
Reciprocity — How Shall Revenue Be Raised? — The Income 
Tax as a War Measure — The Law Sustained by Supreme 
Court Decision — The Wilson Bill Income Tax Law — The Su- 
preme Court Reverses Itself — Popular Dissatisfaction 357 

THE MONROE DOCTRINE. 

Formation of the Quadruple Alliance — Threatened Interference of 
Foreign Powers with South American Governments — Eng- 
land Is First to Sound a Note of Warning — Urges the United 
States to Resist — Enunciation of the Monroe Doctrine — 
What It Signifies — How the Doctrine Has Been Maintained — 
Enforced Twice Against England — The Doctrine Affected 
by Our Colonial Policy — An Issue Threatens 360 

RECIPROCITY— WHAT IT MEANS AND PROMISES. 

A History of Reciprocity Legislation — Blaine's Efforts for a Free 
Exchange of Trade Between the Americas — Reciprocity 
Treaties Now in Force— The Opposition of Protectionists — 
McKinley's Recommendations — Roosevelt's Policy — A Change 
in Our Laws Respecting Foreign Trade Is Now Demanded 
— American Goods Competing Successfully in All the Marts 
of the World 



26 Contents. 



THE TRUST QUESTION. 



PAGE 



One of the Most Complex Questions Now in Issue — What Consti- 
tutes a Trust — The Principle and How It Works — How Shall 
We Repress the Trust — A Difficulty Which Is Beyond Easy 
Amendment — Some Exarrtples in Point — The Pursuit of 
Riches Ruinous to Our Social and National Well-Being — 
Who Shall Conceive a Remedy? 367 

THE PROPOSED ISTHMIAN CANAL. 

A History of Isthmian Canal Legislation. — Companies Organized 
and Work Done — Conviction of De Lesseps on Charges of 
Fraud — The Columbian Concession — The Proposed Nica- 
raguan Canal — The Work Well Begun — A Government Guar- 
antee Asked For — Appointment of and Reports of Commission 
— the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty Proves to Be an Obstacle — 
How the Proposition of a Canal Originated — Great Britain's 
Claims to the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua — Request for a 
Joint Protectorate Leads to the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty — 
The Hay-Pauncefote Treaty — Amendment of the Treaty as 
Drawn Displeasing to England — Denial of Our Right to 
Fortify or Defend the Canal — The Treaty Expires by 
Limitation ^ 370 

GREAT QUESTIONS BY GREAT STATESMEN 375 

The National Emergency, by President McKinley zn 

The Open Door to Trade in China, by Honorable John 

Hay 381 

Trusts and Monopolies, by Honorable William J. Bryan.. 385 
Our Currency and Business Needs, by Honorable Lyman 

J. Gage 402 

Our Need of a Merchant Marine, by Honorable George F. 

Edmunds 411 

An Interoceanic Canal, by Honorable William P. Hepburn 418 

THE NATIONAL CABINET 43i 

MEN OF NATIONAL MARK 443 

THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 457 

SENATORS AND MEMBERS OF THE FIFTY-SIXTH CON- 
GRESS 460-544 



ILL USTRA TIONS. 



House at Niles, Ohio, in Which the Late President McKinley Was 

Born 33 

McKinley at Different Ages 34 

President McKinley's Favorite Portrait, specially authorized for 

■'McKinley and Men of Our Times." 35 

Interior View of Hiram Lodge A. F. and A. M., Winchester, Va 36 

Interior View of Hiram Lodge A. F. and A. M 37 

Late Portrait of Mrs. McKinley 38 

McKinley at the Polls, Canton 39 

Scene at McKinley's Home the Day of Election 40 

Crowds Before the Presidential Election Bulletins. 41 

President McKinley Delivering His Eloquent Response to the Com- 
mittee of Notification on the Porch of His Residence at 

Canton, Ohio 4^ 

President McKinley and His Second Cabinet 43^ 

President McKinley in the War Room, Washington 44 

The President and Mrs. McKinley 45 

The Last Photograph Taken at the Request of President McKinley. . 46 
The Last Photograph Taken of President and Mrs. McKinley, During 

the Buffalo Visit 47 

President McKinley Reviewing 45,000 School Children in San Fran- 
cisco 48 

The Last Public Utterance of the President Before the Shooting, at 

the Pan-American Exposition 49 

Shooting of McKinley 50 

The Temple of Music at the Pan-American Exposition, Where Presi- 
dent McKinley Was Shot 51 

Exact Spot Where the President Was Shot 52 

Ambulance in Which the Wounded President Was Taken from the 

Temple of Music 53 

Soldiers and Correspondent Tent Opposite the Milburn House, 

Buffalo 54 

The Dying President's Parting Words to His Wife — "Good-bye All ! 

It Is God's Way ! His Will Be Done" 53 

Removal of the Body from Milburn House 56 

Carrying the Casket from the Milburn House to the Hearse 57 

Centenary Mejthodist Church, Richmond, Va 58 

Funeral Procession Leaving Milburn House, Buffalo 59 

Transferring the Flower-Covered Casket to the Hearse for the 

Journey to the City Hall 60 

A Quarter of a Million Men. Women and Children Waiting to Enter 

the City Hall. Buffalo 61 

View of the Former Capitol of the Confederate States, Draped .... 62 

The Trained Nurses Who Attended the President 63 

(27) 



28 Illustrations. 

PAGE 

President Roosevelt with Senator Hanna, Leaving Milburn House. . 64 

The Funeral Train Drawing into the Station at Harrisburg 65 

Removing the Body from the City Hall, Buffalo 65 

Carrying the President's Body into the Capitol 66 

Scene about the Capitol, Washington, While the Body Lay in State. 66 
The Remains of President McKinley Being Borne Down Pennsyl- 
vania Avenue, in Washington 67 

Crowds in Front of the Capitol in Washington Honoring the Remains 

of President McKinley 68 

The Interior of the Capitol at Washington, Where the Body of Presi- 
dent McKinley Lay in State 69 

Carrying the Body into the Court House at Canton 70 

The President's Casket • 7° 

Procession Passing into the Court House, Canton, to View the Re- 
mains 71 

President Roosevelt's Last Look at the Dead President McKinley.. ^2 
Funeral Party Leaving the Train, Canton, President Roosevelt in 

Front 12> 

Removing the Body from the Train, Canton ,. 74 

Placing the Casket in the Hearse, Canton 75 

The Bier, in the Capitol, at Washington 75 

Scene about the Court House. Canton, While the Body Was Lying 

in State 1^ 

The Church at Canton, Where the Final Funeral Ceremonies Were 

Held 17 

Centenary Methodist Church, Richmond, Va., Where the First Prayer 

Service for His Recovery Was Held After McKinley Was Shot 78 

Placing the Body in the Vault, Canton 79 

McKinley Home at Canton 80 

The Shooting of President Lincoln 285 

Shooting of J. Wilkes Booth 286 

The Shooting of President Garfield 287 

The Closing of the Career of James G. Blaine 288 

Last View of the Remains of President Garfield 289 

President Theodore Roosevelt 290 

McKinley and Roosevelt, Just Before the Election of 1900 291 

President Roosevelt and Family 292 

Roosevelt Issuing a Field Order, Cuba 292 

Colonel Roosevelt in the Field. Cuba 293 

The Charge Up San Juan Hill ' 294 

The Wilcox Home in Which President Roosevelt Was Sworn In..... 29,-; 

White House. Washington, D. C 296 

Important Incidents in the Life of James G. Blaine 297 

Transports Conveying the Army of Invasion to Cuba 298 

The Fight on San Juan Hill 299 

The Blowing Up of the "Merrimac" 300 



THE WORLD SHOULD KNOW. 

In the memorable words of Garfield, that soothed the 
wild passions of a vengeful gathering in New York the 
night after Lincoln's assassination, " God reigns and the 
government at Washington still lives." And his words 
may again be as fitly spoken when we contemplate the 
hellish deed of the disguised hand of anarchy that 
destroyed a life so noble, so useful, so kindly and so char- 
itable; that murdered without provocation, that killed with- 
out cause, that slaughtered without gain to even any 
odious principle, our countr3^'s President, the universally 
beloved McKinley. In this hour of bitter anguish let us 
remember and take to our hearts with all possible con- 
solement the anodyne of scriptural promise which Gar- 
field quoted with such effectiveness : " Clouds and dark- 
ness are around Him ; His Pavilion is dark waters and 
thick clouds ; Justice and Judgment are the establish- 
ment of His Throne ; Mercy and Truth shall go before 
His face." 

Our sorrow breathes of a national calamity, and we 
shall not forget the virtues, the capacity, the talents, the 
acts of our fallen magistrate ; but our grief shall not make 
us mindless of the mighty tasks of government which lie 
immediately before the administration, nor the loyalty 
which we owe the new President. The questions of the 
hour are serious, and they are many. Confidence is 
begotten by the pledge of President Roosevelt that the 
policies proclaimed and pursued by the lamented McKinley 

(29) 



30 Introduction". 

shall be his policies; that his purpose will be not to pervert, 
but to perfect ; and may these exalted aims, as they appear 
consistent with our individual sense of right and justice, 
be promoted by the patriotic aid, the loyal devotion, the 
unfaltering service of every American. This book I 
believe will have an influence for infinite good in its 
teachings for better citzenship, in its exposition of the 
crimes of anarchy, in its elucidation, by graphic statement 
and elaborate comment, of the weighty questions that 
press hard upon the nation for prompt settlement accord- 
ing to the principles of strict equity and the highest good. 
In the day of our lamentation we cannot fail to feel 
that, however great, and good, and worthy to be apotheo- 
sized any man may be, his death cannot imperil the life 
nor stay the lofty destiny of this Republic ; that the God of 
our fathers who established it is the God of the children 
who will sustain and strengthen it. Therefore, let us take 
courage to continue in our national well-doing; let us 
cover with monument enwreathed with palm and immor- 
telles the grave of our stricken President, but push on 
with prayer and resolution, confounding the enemies of 
good government by patriotic attachment to our institu- 
tions and its lawfully chosen representatives. 




mHimm McminU^ 



A THOUGHTFUL, CAREFULLY DRAWN PORTRAIT OF OUR 
MARTYRED PRESIDENT. PRESENTING HIM AS HE APPEARED 
TO THOSE WHO KNEW HIM BEST THROUGHOUT HIS LIFE 
AND IN ALL THE RELATIONS OF LIFE: THE SOLDIER. THE 
STATESMAN. THE PRESIDENT, THE MAN :::::::::::; 



(31) 



" H^ashington lives in the hearts and 
lives of his countrymen. Lincoln, with 
his infinite humor and his sorrow, lives to 
teach us and lead us on, and William 
McKinley shall summon all the statesmen 
and all his countrymen to purer living, 
nobler aims, a sweeter fame and eternal 
blessedness." 



(32) 



r 




33 




Copyrighted by Clinedinst, Washington 
PRESIDENT MCKIXLEY'S FAVORITE PORTRAIT, SPECIALLY AUTHORIZKI) FOR 
"MCKINLEY AND MEN OF OUR TIMES." 
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Photograph bj' Cliuedinst, Washington. 
r.ATE PORTRAIT OF MRS. MCKINLEY. 




CROWDS BEFORE THE rKESJDEXTIAL ELECTIuX BLLLETI.NS. 




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SHOOTING OF MCKINLEY. 

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CENTENARY METHODIST CHURCH, RICHMOND, VA. , WHERE THE FIRST 
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Copyrighted by Judge Co., igoi. 
THE TRAINED NURSES WHO ATTENDED THE PRESIDENT, MISS SIMMONS 

AND MISS BARNES. 63 




THE FUNERAL TRAIN DRAWING INTO THE STATION AT HARRISBURG 




REMOVING THE BODY FROM THE CITY HALL, BUFFALO. 



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CARRYING THK PRESIDENT'S BODY INTO THK, CAinTOI,. 

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SCENE ABOUT THE CAPITOL, WASHINGTON, WHILE THE BODY LAY IN STATE. 

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CAKRNINC. IHp; BODY INTO THK COl'RT HOUSK AT CANTON. 




THE president's CASKET. 
70 







Copyrighted by Judge Co., 1901. 
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S LAST LOOK AT THE DEAD PRESIDENT MCKINLEY. 

72 




73 




RKMOVING THK BODY FROM THH TRAIN, CANTON. 




THE BTKR, IN THE CAPITOIv AT WASHINGTON. 

74 




8o 



WILLIAM McKINLEY. 



I. 

AS WE KNEW HIM. 

A week has passed since he was taken from us and it is still 
difficult — even to those who never saw him — to speak of him with- 
out tears. I am not sure but that in this simple fact one may find 
the secret of his strength. Certainly no other man of our times 
and no other President of an}^ time, enjoyed so completely the 
affections of the people. There was a charm about him which those 
who opposed him most bitterly could not resist. You did not have 
to agree with him to like him, you liked him whether or no. So sure 
was he to win those with whom he came in contact that his political 
enemies dreaded nothing so much as his amiability. He always 
had an abundant supply of the milk of human kindness and it 
never soured. With all the iron that was in his will, there was no 
trace of sternness in his nature. He made men feel his love for them, 
and they could not but respond to his affection. He made us under- 
stand that he trusted us and we could not but trust him. My heart 
is chilled anew as I write these words and remember that he whose 
ambition was to be written down as one who trusted his fellowmen 
is dead to-day because he trusted us — because he stretched out his 
hand to one whom he mistook for one of us. 

William McKinley Was One of Us. — He felt it and he made us 
feel it. In few men that I have ever known has the sense of human 
brotherhood been so clearly developed. He was our brother — not 
only our President, but one of our own flesh and blood — one who 



82 Memorial Volume of 

loved to honor us, one who even k)oked up to up and loved to boast of 
us as a boy would boast of his bigger brother. 

Whatever else may be said of him, it is because of his love for 
us that he will live in our hearts, not as our leader merely, but as the 
brother of the people. For in his love for us he was greater, far 
greater as William McKinley the man, than he could have been as 
William McKinley the President. 

Surely there is no greater thing to be said of a num than that he 
was a brother of his fellowmen. 

Love for Wife and Mother. — What he was in the greatness of 
his love to his countrymen, he was in a larger degree to that narrow 
circle of those to whom he was personally attached, and in a still 
larger degree to that narrowest and most sacred circle which embraced 
his wife and mother. There are men who lavish such a wealth of 
affection upon the world at large that they have none left for their 
own hearthstones. William McKinley's love began at home. There 
is not a more beautiful idyl in all of our American history than 
the story of the love which he cherished for his invalid wife and his 
aged mother. Certainly the social life of our country never had a 
more inspiring example of domestic life than that which has been 
exhibited by him since he came into the public eye. As one has said, 
"Anyone who has met him at the White House or on his tours through 
the country in which he was always accompanied by his wife, must 
have been impressed by the fact that no plaudits accorded him, nor 
honors paid him, no eloquent toasts proposed to him ever brought the 
same joyous smile to his face as did the appearance of his little wife 
in any assembly when he got sight of her pale, sweet face. No affairs 
of state, no public functions, no incident however grave the import 
has kept hira from her when her gentle voice called for him." ISTo other 
man of our day has so beautifully exemplified in his daily life his 
belief in those principles which make the relations of man and wife 
so sacred. The world will not soon forget the picture of this man 



American History. 83 

who could lay down the heaviest, the most taxing burdens of the day, 
however urgent the business, to spend an hour of sacred communion 
with his aged mother. 

The Old, Old Story.— The affection of Mr. McKinley for his wife 
was something which the world will never be able to fully appreciate. 
It has been said that there were times when she was kept alive largely 
by the influence which he had over her. If he said she would recover 
she would hold on to life and recover. "There is something here that 
is as old as the hills, but that never fails to seem new and fine because 
it shows a little of the beautiful and the true side of humanity." 

His Affection for Little Children. — ISTaturally this man who had 
no children of his own outside of heaven had a very tender place in 
his heart for the little ones, and very naturally the little ones knew it. 
Everywhere he went they crowded around him. An Alabama editor 
tells a story of a visit of his Press Association to the White House in 
the early summer of 1898. The secretary of the association acted as 
master of ceremonies and announced each name. In the party were 
Mr. and Mrs. Grubbs, of Decatur, and two little girls. "When Mari- 
anne, the older of the children, advanced toward the President she 
became suddenly shy and did not at once take the proffered hand of 
His Excellency. Some one said, 'Shake hands with the President,' 
and as she did so the nation's chief caught her in his arms, at the 
same time saying, 'I have something for you, Marianne.' The Presi- 
dent then took the boutonniere from the lapel of his coat and gave it 
to the child with his compliments." The act was as graceful as it 
was unexpected and gave to the assembly a beautiful glimpse of the 
tender side of the great man's heart. 

I am reminded of a remark which Dr. Hill, the Assistant Secre- 
tary of State, once made to a friend when Mr. McKinley's personality 
was under discussion : 

"If the Lord ever breathed the breath of life into a more gracious 
and amiable man than Mr. McKinley," he said, "I have yet to find 
it out." 



84 Memorial Volume of 

Care for the Old Soldiers. — In speaking of the affection of the 
President for the old soldiers, Mr. Al. G. Field, the actor, who knew 
him intimately, said: 

"We had an old soldier named W. C. Bedford, in Columbus, who 
was a superintendent of the Baltimore and Ohio for forty years. 
When the road was reorganized he was let out of his position. He 
tried hard to get work but always failed. He had friends among the 
Elks who did everything they could for him, but they couldn't get him 
a place. It was suggested they should apply directly to the President. 
Some said it would be no use, as the letter would never get past the 
secretary's pigeon-hole. We wrote to McKinley, and in a few days we 
received a reply and an appointment for the old soldier in the Quarter- 
master's Department in Porto Rico, with an assignment to San Juan. 
After some time the old fellow was superannuated by the Civil Service, 
and was out of a position for two months. The same people went to 
work for him again in the same way, and only last Saturday in Ashe- 
ville I received a notification from the President that it would take 
a month or so to straighten matters out with the department at San 
Juan, but that when he returned to Washington, he would see that the 
old man got an appointment as Quartermaster at San Antonio, Tex. 

"If he never gets back," added Mr. Field, "poor old Bill will be 
left out in the cold." 

His High Sense of Honor. — His spirit was as remarkable 
for its nobility as for its amiability. He was the soul of honor. 
Twice he put away from him the nomination for the presidency 
because he could not sit still and allow himself to be voted for while 
he was pledged to another. The story of the beginning of the 
intimacy between him and ]\lark Hanna furnishes a striking illus- 
tration of this virtue. 

A Case in Point. — In the National Republican Convention 
held in Chicago in 1884 the party was divided in its allegiance to 
several different candidates. In consequence when the Conventiou 



American History. 85 

opened everybody was in the dark and there was nothing but uncer- 
tainty and confusion. Even the Ohio delegation which might have 
been expected to work together liad been split and the members of 
the several factions were almost continually in secret conferences. 
In one of these factions was Hanna, then unknown. In another was 
William McKinley. It was Hanna's first experience in national 
politics and he was indefatigable in his efforts in behalf of his candi- 
date. On the night before the Convention opened, he went to the 
hotel where the Ohio delegation was quartered. The place was 
crowded and many of the guests were sleeping on cots, four or 
more in a room. Hanna wanted to see a certain friend, and learn- 
ing the number of his room went directly to it. In the dim light 
he approached what he thought was his friend's cot and began 
unfolding his plan of action for the following day. The man 
listened quietly for a few moments, and then suddenly put out his 
hand. "Excuse me," he said, "but I think you are mistaken in 
your man. I am William McKinley of Stark County." Hanna 
was overwhelmed with confusion and beat a quick retreat. He had 
exposed his plans to a man whom he knew to belong to an opposing 
faction. As may well be imagined, he went into the Convention the 
next day with many misgivings. But he did not know his man. The 
secrets he had unfolded became at once a sealed book and McKinley 
never once mentioned the matter even to his friends. Hanna was so 
touched by this exhibition of scrupulous honor that he at once began 
to cultivate McKinley's friendship and they soon became bound 
together as with hooks of steel. It will be remembered that it was 
Hanna who pressed McKinley for the presidency. 

Above Envy. — This high virtue enabled Mr. McKinley to rise 
above those petty exhibitions of envy and revenge which have obscured 
so many otherwise eminent lives. He could always hold a tight rein 
upon himself, whatever the provocation might be. As has been often 
said, if he ever had any feelings of injured dignity or ill-temper no one 



86 Memorial Volume of 

ever discovered it. He seems never to have been oiSended even at 
those who most bitterly criticised him. If we may believe the news- 
papers. Senator Tillman, who declared one day that the President 
was gradually becoming a dictator to the subversion of the old 
republic, the very next day wont to the White House to ask for a 
small Consulship for one of his constituents — and got it. He would 
abuse the President as a politician, but he did not hesitate to say 
that in his opinion no finer gentleman from George Washington's 
time ever occupied the presidential chair. 

Making Others' Wishes His Own. — It was remarkable how readily 
the President could enter into the wishes of those who came to him \ 
for help, utterly regardless of their feelings toward him or toward his 
policies. In the organization of the first Philippine commission, one 
of the men who had been provisionally selected hastened to the White 
House and told Mr. McKinley that he was not in favor of the expansion 
policy and that he felt that Mr. McKinley ought to know it and have 
an opportunity to appoint someone else. "Quite the contrary," 
said the President ; "we need just the element of your opinion on that 
commission which you represent. I am glad that you feel as you do 
about it." Another man whom Mr. McKinley was about to appoint 
to an important office went to express to the President his regret 
that he could not favor his policy of protection. Mr. McKinley 
replied simply that the view of the case which he held was the very 
one which he desired to have represented, and insisted on making the 
appointment. 

Cherished No Ill-Feelings. — A gentleman who was a Congres- 
sional Committee clerk some years ago relates that when ]\Ir. McKinley 
was an obscure member of the House of Representatives, the partisan 
"Democratic majority made him no member at all by turning him 
out in a contest. After the declaration of votes was announced 'Mr. 
lilcKinley at once took his papers from his desk and left the House. 
Although I was a Democrat and a youngster I was extremely sorry 



American History. 87 

that the House took such action, believing it to be unfair, and having 
a personal liking for Mr. McKinley, and when he came out into the 
western lobby of the House I approached him and said : 

" 'I am very sorry, sir/ 

"'Never mind, my boy, it will come out right in the end,' he 
said in simple faith." 

Incarnation of Courtesy. — The ex-clerk said that what impressed 
him most about Mr. McKinley, in those days, was his simple, boyish 
directness and good nature. In his relations with committee clerks 
and other obscure men he was the incarnation of courtesy, "which" he 
added "was in powerful contrast to the rudeness so prevalent in Wash- 
ington." 

True Courage. — People whose only idea of strength was noisy 
self-assertion insisted that Mr. McKinley was timid, yet those who 
knew him best believe that there was no man more truly courageous, 
for he could face danger when he knew the greatness of the peril, and 
he could wait and suffer long in order to be sure that he was right, 
when all the world was howling at him to go on. 

A Devout Christian. — It seems very natural, after what has 
been said, to add that Uv. McKinley was a Christian of the bravest 
and most devoted type. His pastor recalls that when he settled in 
Canton, one of the first things he did was to call on the minister of his 
church, present his church credentials and ask to be assigned to duty. 
He did not want to be a nominal church member. He was given a 
Bible class and later was elected Sunday School superintendent. One 
could be sure that he would be found in his pew, if it was 
possible for him to be there. He was a Christian of the stalwart type. 
He believed in the old-fashioned doctrines and the old-fashioned way. 
"What he was to his country and her institutions, believing in them 
and giving his best power to them, so he was to his church and her 
institutions, giving her his unhesitating and unqualified adherence 
The expression of his religious experience was of a very modest kind. 



88 Memorial Volume of 

It was seen in the purity of his life, in his freedom from fault-finding, 
in the cheerfulness which remained with him under all circumstances, 
in his love which took in all the world and in liis devotion to the 
teachings of his Lord. Surely the acts and words of this man in his 
last hours — in those hours in which a man does not play for the 
applause of the galleries — will live as the greatest monument to the 
truth of Christianity which this new century has yet produced. 

Tlie Measure of a Great Man. — It is too soon to attempt to get 
at the depth or hreadth of William McKinley's influence, or to form 
an adequate conception of his character. As I have said elsewhere, 
a small man may be measured in a day, a great man may not be 
measured for a generation. We cannot attempt to get a full-length 
portrait of a man whose life is bound up with the life of an epoi'li, 
as McKinley's was, until sufficient time has elapsed to get a full- 
length view of the epoch itself. Certain it is, however, that when the 
mourning over our loss has subsided and the world shall come to 
pass an estimate upon liis life without emotion it will be pronounced 
the life of one who was truly great because he was truly good. For 
the present it is enough for ns to contemplate the example of this 
beautiful and kindly life, which by the grace of God was enabled, as 
we have all been saying, to face even so sudden a fate as his with a 
noble fortitude in those memorable words in his last agony, "Good-bye, 
all good-bye ; it is God's way. His will, not ours be done." 



American History. 89 



II. 
A GOOD BEGINNING. 

William McKinley came of a long line of brawny ancestors, who 
were remarkable for industry, frugality, strength of intellect, and a 
sturdy religious faith. 

The McKinleys. — James McKinley, the founder of the northern 
branch of the McKinley family in America, came to this country from 
the north of Ireland about the middle of the eighteenth century. He 
was a fine, promising Scotch-Irish lad of about twelve years. His 
son, David McKinley, served in the Kevolutionary War, enlisting 
at twenty-one. David's second son, James, married Mary Kose, who 
was of English stock. The second son of James was William, the 
father of the subject of this biography. On his father's side his people 
were Covenanters — the race that feared neither man nor devil. On 
his mother's side his people were Puritans, who loved liberty next to 
their God. William McKinley moved to !N'ew Lisbon, Ohio, where he 
was married to ISTancy Campbell Allison. The Allisons were excellent 
Scotch-English people, who came from England to Virginia, and 
then emigrated to Pennsylvania, finally settling in Ohio. Nine chil- 
dren resulted from this union, the seventh of whom was William 
McKinley, Jr., who was born in Niles, Ohio, January 29, 1843. 

Well Born. — No boy was ever better born, though he was not 
born with a silver spoon in his mouth. While his family belonged to 
the highest aristocracy of character, they possessed little of this world's 
goods, and ranked in their neighborhood as plain, ordinary livers. 
The McKinleys had never pursued the callings which attract the 
dollars. William McKinley, Sr., was an iron puddler, while his father 
and grandfather were carpenters. The village around the McKinleys 



90 Memorial Volume of 

was largely built by members of the family, while many houses through 
the country are their handiwork. 

If young William did not early feel the pinch of poverty very 
seriously, he yet grew up under very narrow circumstances. The story 
of his boyhood is much like the story of the average boy of stout heart 
and with an inheritance of an abundance of good blood. 

"A Good Boy." — Mrs. McKinley used to say that while William 
was not a very good baby, because he cried a great deal, he steadily 
improved with time, and as a boy was all that a mother could desire. 
He was a genuine boy, too, with all the animal spirits that a boy could 
take care of; but his exuberance gave his mother no trouble for the 
reason that it was never so great as the love he lavished upon her. 
He was fond of every youthful sport, and excelled in them all. There 
was not a boy in the neighborhood who could beat him at marbles^ 
none who could approach him in the use of the bow and arrow, and 
he was an excellent swimmer. His favorite diversion was kite-flying. 
"It seems to me," said his mother, "I never went into the kitchen 
without seeing a paste-pot or a ball of string waiting to be made into 
a kite." As fond as he was of sports, however, he would often spend 
whole days in the house when other boys were at play, simply because 
he preferred the companionship of his mother and sisters. His affec- 
tionate nature made him popular with his playmates and won for him 
many a word of high praise from his teacher. It smoothed the way 
for him then as it so often did in his public life. Another of the saving 
graces which exhibited itself in early boyhood was his wonderful 
patience. 

A Playmate's Testimony. — ''I declare," said Joe Fisher, the 
village constable of Niles, the other day, '"T never thought Bill would 
be President. Little did I suppose as I sat fishing with him on Mos- 
quito Creek, with our legs dangling from the edge of the bridge, or 
as we caught angle-worms to bait our hooks, that I was with a coming 
President. I well remember his patience with the hook and line. The 



1 



American History. 91 

rest of the boys would get disgusted at not getting a bite and go in 
bathing, but Bill would keep on fishing. When it came time to go 
home he would carry a string of fish while the rest had to be content 
with their baths. Sometimes we would all have good luck, and the 
strings of fish we would carry home suspended from a pole across 
our shoulders would make the eyes of every one that passed stick 
away out." 

ISTiles is now a thriving little city of nine or ten thousand inhabi- 
tants. The house in which McKinley was born has recently been 
cut in halves and the part which included the room of his birth has 
been moved to Eiverside Park, a pretty spot a mile away. It has in 
recent years become the victim of relic hunters, and bears the marks of 
penknives on all sides. 

"There," said Joe Fisher to the reporter to whom he had just 
spoken of Bill's fishing qualities, "there is the old school in which Bill 
and I learned our a b c's," pointing to a red colored building across 
the street. "Bill is President now but he has not forgotten Joe Fisher. 
I never asked him for an office, for I don't believe in that sort of 
thing, but if I ever happen to be where McKinley is he throws his 
arms around me and gives me such a handshake as brings back 
the days when three of us boys. Bill and Mr. Allison and I, were 
chums." 

One of the blacksmiths of the town made the pair of skates on 
which young McKinley learned to skate. Skates were a great luxury in 
those days and the three chums had to use the same pair. After they 
had all learned the first boy who got to the place where the skates were 
kept had the right to use them first. 

William's playmates remember him as being of a very quiet dis- 
position. The boys who were bent on mischief were never able to 
interest him. He would neither help nor sanction them in anything 
they wanted to do. He had no use for "deviltry," as Joe Fisher 
put it. 



92 Memorial Volume of 

"Us three boys/' said Joe, "would go down to the saw-mill yard 
and play with chips of wood. Bill and Allison rather sided with 
each other and picked up all the large chips and left me the small 
ones. At last I got disgusted and pitched in and licked them both. 
Bill was about eight years old then." 

Mother McKinley. — Mrs. McKinley, burdened with the cares 
of a great family and hedged in by poverty, was yet able to give her 
children as much of the old-fashioned type of training as was good 
for them. She saw to it that her boys got to school on time, and was 
careful to find out what they did when they got there. She gave them 
line upon line, and precept upon precept, and the elementary virtues 
were strongly implanted in them. They grew up to remember that all 
liars have their part in the lake of fire and brimstone and to dearly 
love the truth, which should make them free. The mother had a 
horror of tattling, and the child who yielded to the temptation to tell 
tales was soundly punished. William, especially, imbibed much of 
his mother's spirit, and it has been said by many who knew her that 
all the great virtues for which he was distinguished had already 
shown resplendent in her life. She was a woman of unusual strength 
of mind, and like all her people possessed the loftiest principles and 
a strong sense of devotion to duty. 

Humble Circumstances. — Speaking of those early days, the 
mother once said: 

"Ours was a hard, earnest life. My husband was always an early 
riser, and off to his work, while we were at Niles. At Poland he was 
away from home most of the time and the whole burden of the family 
cares fell on me." 

The family moved to Poland when William was eleven years old. 
The mother was full of ambition for her children, and she wanted 
them to have the advantages of the excellent schools which were 
there. The father shared her ambition and was content to spend most 
of his time in the foundry at Niles to keep meal in the barrel. 



American History. 93 

At School. — Those who rememher his school days say that young 
.lIcKinley excelled in the study of languages, but was only fairly good 
at figures. He was a constant reader, and was especially fond of 
poetry. He was a good debater, and his mother has told how, when a 
mere boy, lie used to go to a tannery kept by Joseph Smith, and engage 
in warm controversies over the slavery question. These early debates 
developed a remarkable controversial power which stood him in good 
stead all through his life. 



94 Memorial Volume of 1 

III. 

A YOUTHFUL SOLDIER. i 

I 

In his eighteenth year he was sent to Allegheny College at Mead- 
ville, Pa., where he stood an excellent examination, entering the junior j 
class. It was soon found, however, that his neglect of recreation during j 
his early school days had told too severely upon his constitution, and I 
in a few months he was compelled to leave college and return home. 
Unwilling to remain idle, he obtained a public school two or three miles 
from home, and the brisk walks to and from the school soon restored 
him to his normal condition, and he began to look forward to returning ■ 
to college and completing his course. At that moment, however, 
another thought came into his mind and his heart, and mastered it. 
There was no longer time for study; there was only time for fighting. , 
His cousin, General William McKinley Osborne, now consul-general' 
in London, has told the story of his enlistment in the army : 

How He Enlisted. — ''There was a great excitement at that time," 
he says, "and hundreds of people followed tlie soldiers. "Will and I 
were among them. We drove in a huggy over to Youngstown, and 
there saw the company leave for Columbus. On our way back to 
Poland that night we discussed the matter together and decided it 
was our duty to volunteer, and we thought that the men -who stayed 
would be despised by the commutiity. 

"When we reached home Will told his mother wliat he had con- 
cluded to do, and she at once replied : 

" 'Well, boys, if you think it is your duty to fight for your country 
I think you ought to go.' 

"A few days after this I left Poland for home and told father I 
wanted to go to the army. I knew he would allow me to go, as Aunt 
Nancy advised. I was not disappointed. My father was a Democrat, 



American History. 95 

but lie was a liberal man. He told me I could do as I wished, and he 
gave me some money (it was gold, I remember) to fit me out. Will 
McKinley left Poland, and we went to Cleveland together. From 
there we we; t to Columbus and enlisted at Camp Chase. General 
Fremont swore us in. Our enlistment vras in cold blood, and not 
through the enthusiasm of the moment. It was done as McKinley 
has done most of the things of his life — as the logical offspring of 
careful consideration." 

This was at the beginning of the war. The following spring 
young McKinley won his first promotion, that of commissary-sergeant. 
Speaking of this promotion. General Hayes, who was the young man's 
superior officer, said : 

A Tribute from His Superior Officer. — "Young as McKinley was, 
we soon found that in business, in executive ability, he was a man of 
rare capacity, especially for a boy of his age When battles were 
fought, or a service was to be performed in warlike things, he always 
took his place. The night was never too dark, the weather was never 
too cold, there was no sleet or storm, or hail or snow, that was in the 
way of his prompt and efficient performance of every duty. When I 
became commander of the regiment he soon came to be upon my staff, 
and he remained upon my staff for one or two 3-ears, so that I did 
literally and in fact know him like a book and love him like a brother." 

General Russell Hastings, who was a lieutenant in the same regi- 
ment, said of the young soldier : 

"He was always keen, quick and alert, and so was naturally 
fitted for staff service, a fact his superiors soon realized and took 
advantage of, so that during the greater part of the war he served 
on the staff of the general officers, one of the most dangerous posi- 
tions in the army, one which required the utmost readiness of resource 
and bravery of the highest order." 

At Antietam. — Soon after he had received his promotion his 
regiment, under the command of Colonel Hayes, broke camp and led 



96 Memorial Volume of 

the advance against the enemy, and the greater part of the year was 
spent in almost continuous fighting. At the Battle of Antietam, which 
was one of the fiercest engagements of the whole war, there was 
hardly a cessation of fighting during the whole day and there was 
extraordinary suffering from hunger and thirst, it being impossible 
to spare anyone to go to the rear for refreshments. Sergeant McKin- 
ley, who was then in charge of the commissary department of the 
brigade, took in the situation and gathering up the stragglers placed 
them in charge of food and hot coffee and led them back to the 
exhausted soldiers. It was near sunset, and when the exhausted sol- 
diers saw McKinley and his men hurrying up with wagons of supplies - 
they cheered to the echo. The mules were lashed into a run and the 
bullets were fiying so thick that the sergeant was ordered back, but 
he pushed on ; and though one team was disabled he managed to get to 
the hungry men with the other, who, hastily swallowing the refresh- 
ments, took heart again and returned to the fray with strength to 
beat back the furious onslaught which marked the close of the day. 

A Heroic Deed at Kemstown. — At the Battle of Kernstown it was 
suddenly discovered that a large portion of the Union troops were 
surrounded by Early's army, which was supposed to have gone toward 
Kichmond. The discovery was so terrifying that there was danger 
of a general stampede, and it was soon realized that nothing but the 
most perfect skill and heroism could save it from destruction. In the 
midst of the confusion it was noticed that Colonel Brown's regiment, 
through some blunder, still retained its position where it was posted 
at the beginning of the battle. His soldiers were fighting with the 
fury of desperation, but it was certain that if they remained nothing 
would save them from annihilation. The men would not retreat with- 
out orders, and the enemy was rapidly closing in upon them from 
every quarter. 

A Fearful Risk. — General Hayes saw that the only possibility of 
escape was to send orders to Colonel Brown to withdraw instantly. 



i 



American History. 97 

But it was a long distance to the regiment and whoever undertook 
to carry the message would have to do it at a fearful risk. There 
was hardly a chance in a thousand that he would get through alive. 

In his desperation, General Hayes looked about for a man whom 
he could trust for the terrible task, and his eyes fell upon young 
McKinley. 

"Colonel Brown," said the General, 'lias no thought of retreat; 
not a moment must be lost in ordering him to withdraw. Will you 
carry the order. Lieutenant, to him ?" 

McKinley quickly assented, saluted the general, headed his horse 
toward the regiment, and in an instant he was gone. 

As he sped away the general said to himself, in anguish: 

"He can never do it ! He is sure to be killed !" 

His eyes were kept upon the young lieutenant as he sped across 
the fields. Shot and shell were flying around him, but not for one 
moment did he pause. A bomb exploded at his side and the horse 
and his rider disappeared in the smoke and dust. 

"He is killed ! Both are killed ! They have been blown to atoms !" 
cried the soldiers who were watching the youth. 

A Charmed Life. — But the smoke lifted and the lieutenant was 
seen galloping on toward the regiment. Then the enemy discovered 
him and the bullets wliistled about him thicker than ever. But on 
he went without so much as bending his head before the blast. The 
men at Crook's batteries from the top of an adjoining ridge saw his 
peril and opened upon the enemy, hoping to hold it in check and save 
the youth's life. Another moment and he had reached the regiment. 

It is said that McKinley in the flush of the moment could not 
forbear adding to the message a word of reproof. 

"I supposed you knew enough to withdraw without waiting for 
orders," he said. 

"I was thinking about it," replied the Colonel, "and guess we will 
make a move, but I must let those fellows have another volley or two." 
7 



98 Memorial Volume of 

The regiment delivered its volley and began slowly retreating, 
firing as they went. 

They finally escaped, and McKinley returned to General Hayes 
with his report. 

The general was deeply affected, and after thanking the young 
man, said: 

"I never expected to see you alive again." 

At Opequan. — At the Battle of Opequan McKinley distinguished 
himself for great gallantry and military skill. He had been ordered 
by General Hayes to bring General Duval's troops to join the first 
division, which was then advancing to battle. It was a serious ques- 
tion as to what route should be taken. McKinley seemed to grasp 
the situation intuitively, for without knowing the roads he brought 
the troops up in good shape and on time, though running many risks 
on the way. Few men would have accepted tlie responsibilities which 
he had on his shoulders that day. 

Again Promoted. — A little later he was on the staff of General 
Crook, and later still he was assigned to duty with General Hancock. 
In 1864 he received his promotion as major. Ilis brevet commission, 
which his wife still has in her possession, reads: 

"For gallantry and meritorious services at the battles of Opequan, 
Fisher's Creek and Cedar Hill. 

"(Signed) A. Lincoln." 

There are other soldiers who have records more brilliant, but 
none who displayed more courage, and none who had greater responsi- 
bilities for his age than young McKinley. 



American History. 99 



IV. 
CHOOSES THE LAW. 

After the surrender McKinley was offered a commission in the 
reguhir army, but acting on the advice of liis father he determined to 
become a lawyer, and we soon find him in the office of Judge Glidden, 
who was then one of the leading members of the Stark County bar. 
After studying here for a 3'ear and a half, the question of providing 
for himself became a serious one and he began to consider whether 
it was not his duty to enter upon a business career and continue the 
study of law at odd moments as he might have opportunity. His 
sister Annie was then teaching school at Canton. She had saved 
a little mone}', and she was full of ambition for her brother. When 
she learned of his intentions, she said to him : 

"You must not think of giving up your studies.^' 

He replied that he was not willing to burden the other members 
of the family with his support. 

"It will be no sacrifice," she said, "or if it be considered such, 
we can share it among ourselves, and the burden will be hardly felt." 

She insisted, and in a few days young McKinley had settled down 
to hard work at the Albany (Ohio) Law School, one of the finest 
institutions of its kind in the West. 

In 1867 he was admitted to the bar and settled in Canton. 

Puts Out His Shingle. — Young McKinley put out his shingle 
from the back room of the public building. His office was next door 
to that of Judge Belden, who was a leader in his profession in Ohio. 
One afternoon the judge was taken sick. He stepped back into young 
McKinley's office and asked him to take a case for him the next morn- 
ing. The young lawj'er said he was not able to do it; he didn't 



LofO. 



100 Memorial Volume oi? 

know enough; he wasn't familiar with the law in the case, and that 
there was no time to look it up. The judge insisted, however, and 
McKinley sat up all night studying the law on the subject. 

Wins His Case. — The next day he argued the case and won it. 
A week afterwards the judge stepped into his office and laid twenty- 
five dollars on his desk, saying: 

"Well, Mack, you won the case. I told you you would." 

"Yes," he said, "I won it, but I don't want any pay for it, and if 
I did I wouldn't want this much." 

"You must take it," replied the Judge. 

"I couldn't take so much, Judge." 

"But that's all right. I get an even one hundred dollars from it 
and keep seventy-five dollars for myself. And what is more, I want 
you for a partner." 

Judge Bel den and Mr. McKinley practiced together for several 
years, when the judge died. 

A Bow-legged Plaintiff. — A few days after entering into partner- 
ship with Judge Belden he was asked to defend a surgeon against 
whom suit had been brought by a man whose broken leg he had set. 
It was a suit for malpractice, the plaintiff contending that it was 
through the surgeon's fault that the injured leg had become crooked. 
It was certain that he was distressingly bow-legged. One of the most 
brilliant members of the bar had been retained as counsel for the 
plaintiff, and heavy damages were demanded. In the presence of 
the court the injured limb was bared, and the brilliant lawyer asked: 

"Did you ever see anything worse than that ?" 

There could be no doubt about it. 

"There, gentlemen of the jury," cried the lawyer, "is the con- 
vincing evidence which even my learned friend on the other side can- 
not question. There is the convincing proof of the negligence or 
incompetency of the surgeon who has destroyed forever the symmetry 
of my client's perfect limb besides injuring him for life. I am sure 



American History. 101 

that you intelligent gentlemen will give my client the only remedy 
possible and which can never fully compensate him for his sufferings 
and loss, but may serve to teach the medical men that a poor patient 
is entitled to the same skill and considerate treatment that are given 
to the millionaire and the man who is able to pay a liberal fee for 
his service." 

The lawyer finished his speech with an air of triumph, and sat 
down wondering if the opposing counsel would dare open his mouth 
in reply. McKinley arose, and turning to the plaintiff, said simply: 

"Bare the other leg." 

"I object," said his lawyer; "the other leg is not in the case. 
We claim damages for the one that has been virtually destroyed, as 
the jury and your honor have observed for yourselves." 

Ttie judge decided that the request of the counsel was reasonable 
and proper, and commanded the witness to bare his leg as directed. 

There was nothing else to do, and so the man slowly and shame- 
facedly drew up the trousers of his other limb. Instantly the jurors 
and spectators broke into convulsive laughter^ for the second limb 
was more twisted than the first. When the laughter had subsided, 
McKinley said: 

"Nature seems to have done less for this man than my client. 
I move, therefore, that the suit be dismissed with the recommendation 
that the complainant have his other leg broken and set by my client, 
the surgeon." 

Elected Prosecuting Attorney. — It did not appear as though 
there was much chance for a rising young Eepublican politician in 
such a Democratic stronghold as Stark County, but Mr. McKinley 
had already developed considerable reputation, and in 1869, when he 
found that he could have the party nomination for prosecuting attor- 
ney, he resolved to take it and get the place. The county was so 
strongly Democratic that his nomination was really intended for 
nothing more than a compliment, no one having the slightest idea 



i 



102 Memorial Volume of 

of his election. But McKinley, inspired as was then thought by the 
idea of distinguishing himself in the eyes of his -fiancee, went into 
the campaign with such vigor that he carried the county. The oppos- 
ing candidate was William A. Lynch, who was also the opposing 
counsel in his first law case. Two years later the two men were again 
opposing candidates. This time Lynch was elected. Mr. Lynch 
became one of Mr. McKinley's strongest friends and as a gold Demo- 
crat worked for his election in 1896. It was not an unusual experience 
in McKinley's life that those who opposed him in the fiercest political 
campaign ended by becoming liis staunchest supporters. 



American History. 103, 

V. 

CHOOSES A ^VIFE. 

The most prominent young man in Canton was William McKin- 
ley. It would have been strange if he had not fallen in love with the 
belle of the town, who, everybody agreed, was not only beautiful but 
possessed of all the virtues which adorn her sex. Ida Saxton was the 
daughter of James A. Saxton, a successful banker of Canton. She 
was born in 1847 and received every educational advantage to be 
obtained in that day. After graduating from Media Seminary, she 
was sent to Europe for an extended tour. A recent visitor to Canton 
says that the people all remember the home-coming of Miss Ida, and 
agree that she was a young lady of unusual beauty, bright and win- 
some, although it is said at times a little capricious, but the embodi- 
ment of healthy, happy girlhood. She appreciated the advantages 
which she had received, and was conscious of the duties of her posi- 
tion. That she was a woman of fascinating personality and unusual 
force of character is indicated by the fact that no one in Canton who 
knew her at that timte but can now recall some incident illustrative of 
her charming character. 

A Real Love Story. — A friend of the Saxton family said that 
after her return from Europe her father lived in constant dread that 
she would soon marry and leave him, and in consequence planned all 
sorts of methods to keep her admirers, with which she was bountifully 
supplied, at a safe distance. It was his hope that she might remain 
single and always live for his own comfort. Although a man of large 
means, he believed that every one should know how to make a living, 
and he therefore taught his daughter the banking business, and in a 
little while she was stationed at the cashier's window in his bank. 
Here he fondly hoped that she was truly caged, but he reckoned with- 



104 Memorial Volume of 

out his host. As a writer has said, "it was the old sweet story, and if 
to the life romance of Mr. and Mrs. ]\IcKinley there was added a 
little early opposition, the necessity for some few innocent manoeu- 
vres to secure a coveted interview, surely the world is more interested 
in the story. For although all the world loves a lover, it loves hest 
one who owns a stout heart to win his ''faire ladye.' " Mr. Saxton. 
yielded to the inevitable as gracefully as a man could yield when he 
found it inevitable, and consented to the union of his daughter with 
Major McKinley, who was then the most popular young man in town. 
A Philadelphia lady is still in possession of a memento of the iiniou 
in the shape of a faded invitation to the wedding. 

Early Sorrows. — Their first child was born on Christmas Day, 
1871, and was named Kate. The second daughter was named for her 
mother. Before her birth Mrs. McKinley's mother died, and so great 
was the shock as to cause a long and severe illness, resulting in such 
prostration that she has never entirely recovered. The second child 
was taken from them when it was six months old, and shortly after- 
wards their firstborn died. It was a common remark in the community 
that although they were overwhelmed by their bereavement they did 
not rise from it with a particle of bitterness or melancholy. Indeed, 
their sorrow had such a mellowing effect that it seemed to cast a halo 
about them, and people who met them said that even a trial so great 
might have its compensations in this life. With no child to whom 
their hearts might go out, it is not strange that two natures as affec- 
tionate as they were should be drawn even closer together, and that 
their love should have become a lifetime devotion that fell little short 
of idolatry. The story of the President's affection for his invalid wife 
will long be remembered as one of the sweetest stories of our domestic 
life. 

Mrs. McKinley.— Mrs. McKinley was perhaps as abundantly sup- 
plied with affection as her husband, although her love was not so 
remarkable to the world as his own. Sh.e never made any concealment 



American History. 105 

of her pride in her husband. She always believed in him with all 
her heart. She believed that he was the greatest power for good in the 
country. She believed in his opinions and in his statesmanship, and 
she loved him so intensely that she could not keep from disliking any 
one who passed the slightest criticism upon him. No one could ever 
joke about Mr. McKinley in her presence with safety. She was never 
surprised at any of the honors which came to him. To her thinking 
they came as a matter of course. She knew what he had in him when 
she married him, and she believed that the world would sooner or later 
find it out. While she appreciated the honors which came to him, they 
never made any difference in her feeling toward him. To this day 
he is what she called him when she first knew him — simply "the 
Major." 



1Q(5 Memorial Volume of 

VI. 

CHOSEN FOR PUBLIC SERVICE. 

McKinley's success at the bar, his marked ability as a speaker, 
and the charms of his personality soon brought him into public notice 
and he began to be much in demand. 

"A Coining Politician."— The story is told that on one occa- 
sion he was sent for to fill the appointment of a prominent 
politician who had been canvassing the county, and who was detained 
at home by sickness. He was so youthful in appearance and so modest 
that when he was introduced to the chairman of the meeting, Michael 
Bitzer, that gentleman could only ask: 

"Can you make a speech?" 

This rather blunt remark quite took the breath from the young 
man for a moment, but on being assured that no offence was intended 
he soon regained his composure and his pleasant face and went to his 
task. 

One of His Early Efforts. — When he arose and looked at his 
audience there was not a sign, it is said, of the emotion which usually 
attends a young man's early efforts. "But," says Mr. Bitzer, "as I 
remember him the same strong characteristics which have been so 
notable in his public life within the last few years stood out forcibly 
on that night." Every one was impressed with his strong personality 
and his kindly manner, though his audience could only see him dimly 
in the glimmer of the street lamps. "His hearty handshake and his 
pleasant smile were all there only waiting for opportunity to develop 
them." It is said that while he spoke the silence would have admitted 
of hearing a pin drop. The night was clear and his voice was distinctly 
lieard by those who stood a hundred feet away on the store steps. He 
did not once refer to his notes, and his vocabulary never failed him. 



American History. 107 

"Could lie speak?'' said Mr. Bitzer the other day, recalling 
the meniorable scene. Michael is now eighty-three years old but 
he remembers it all as if it happened yesterday. 

"Could he speak? Well, I should say he could; everybody was 
simply dumfounded. For nearly an hour he talked as no young man 
in Stark County had talked before. I told Judge Underbill who 
accompanied him after the meeting, that McKinley did a blamed 
sight better than he could, and the Judge, too, pronounced him a com- 
ing politician." 

Mr. Bitzer said he was greatly surprised when the Judge intro- 
duced the young strip of a boy, saying that he had come to make a 
speech in place of another judge who was unable to be present. 

"Of course I only asked McKinley in a joke if he could make a 
speech. I spoke to him much as I would to a boy, but I really did 
have my doubts about such a young man doing justice to the occasion." 

He introduced him as "AVilliam McKinley of Canton." 

"Introduced Into Politics." — The old man is naturally very proud 
of having "introduced the President into politics," as he puts it. 
One day he drove to Canton and on the street met Mr. McKinley and 
ex-Postmaster-General Heath. 

"Here," said the President to his companion as he put his hand 
upon Michael's shoulder, "is the man who introduced me into politics 
several years ago." 

Several years before that, Mr. Bitzer had called at the Governor's 
office in Columbus when Mr. McKinley was Governor. Introducing 
him to the dozen people who were at the time in the room the 
Governor said: 

"This is the man who first introduced me into politics." 

Elected to Congress. — In 1877 Mr. McKinley's friends proposed 
his name for Congress. In his own coiinty delegates to the Congres- 
sional Convention were elected by a popular vote. McKinley carried 
every township in the county but one and that had but a single dele- 



108 Memorial Volume or 

gate; while in tlie other counties he was almost equally successful. 
When the Convention met he was nominated on the first ballot. The 
nomination was a forlorn hope at best, but he accepted it and was 

elected. 

Soon Attracts Attention.— He was but thirty-four years old 
when he entered the House. As every one knows, there is but little 
opportunity, as a rule, for a new Congressman to show what is in 
him, no matter how marked his ability may be. He is assigned to an 
obscure place on an unimportant committee and there he must bide 
his time. McKinley, however, had made a profound study of economic 
questions, and this fact together with his quiet manners and grave, 
preoccupied look soon attracted attention. Among those who became 
interested in the new member was James G. Blaine. Their views on 
public questions were similar, and Blaine invited him to his State 
to help in the elections in the following October. In his "Twenty 
Years in Congress" Blaine says of the young Congressman : 

How He Impressed Blaine. — "William McKinley, Jr., entered 
from the Canton district. He enlisted in an Ohio regiment when 
but seventeen years old, and soon won the rank of major by meritorious 
services. The interest of his constituency and his own bent of mind 
led him to the study of industrial questions, and he was soon recognized 
in the House as one of the most thorough statisticians and one of the 
ablest defenders of the doctrine of protection." 

Pig-iron Kelly. — When Blaine entered the House Samuel J. 
Eandall, the great Democratic Protectionist, was Speaker, and James 
A. Garfield was the Eepublican leader. The great champion of pro- 
tection at that time was William D. Kelly, of Pennsylvania, a man who 
possessed a marvelous amount of information on all subjects relating 
to tariff and industrial conditions. McKinley sat at the feet of the 
veteran and became known as the lieutenant of "Pig-iron Kelly," as 
the Pennsylvanian representative was called. Mr. Kelly was attracted 
by the studious attention of the young Ohioan and expressed a wish 



i 



American History. 109 

that McKinley should succeed him as loader in the cause of protec- 
tion. It is needless to add that this wish was gratified even to a 
greater length than Kelly had hoped for. 

In Politics to Stay. — It was soon discovered that McKinley had 
come into politics to stay. For fourteen years he represented the 
district of which Stark County was a part. It was not the same 
district all these years, however, as the opposite party several times 
gerrymandered it with the hope of securing his defeat. Their first 
attempt was unsuccessful but he had a narrow escape. The next 
attempt was made in 1883 and McKinley was elected by a majority of 
only eight votes. It is said that after his election he went to Wash- 
ington and called on Secretary Folger at the Treasury Department. 
There was a Democratic landslide that year and Folger had been 
defeated as Governor of New York by Grover Cleveland by a majority 
of 192,000 votes. McKinley spoke of the result in his district and 
complained of his small majority. 

"Why," he said, "my majority was only eight votes." 
"Young man," replied Folger, "let me tell you that eight votes 
is a mighty big majority this fall." 



110 Meaioiual Volume ot' 

VII. 

A BRILLIANT CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. 

When Garfield retired from Congress McKinley succeeded him 
on the Ways and Means Committee, and as a member of this com- 
mittee in 1883 he urged that a tariff commission be appointed, and 
made a strong speech in its support. As is well known, he took the 
leading part in framing the tariif bill of 1SS3, which was enforced 
for seven years. His speeches on this measure added greatly to his 
reputation, and he soon became the recognized exponent of the tariff. 
The Morrison Horizontal Eeduction bill, which came up in 1884, 
gave him another opportunity to fight free trade, which he did with 
great energy, though he battled in vain, the Democrats being in 
majority in the House. 

Up to this time ]\rcKinley had not entered into the domain of 
national politics, nor had he taken any great part in the affairs of his 
native State. He had found enough to do to look after his district. 
But he was now in the public eye and the public began to call for him. 

Exhibits Marked Parliamentary Ability. — In 1884 he was made 
permanent chairman of the Republican State Convention at Cleve- 
land, where he displayed marked parliamentary ability. At this 
convention he showed how a man surrounded by all the tempta- 
tions of a public life can be true to a friend who also has political 
ambition. 

True to His Friends. — The fight was between Blaine and Sherman, 
and the great contest was, of course, for the delegates at large. 
McKinley had promised some friends, who themselves wanted to be 
delegates, that he would not be a candidate. Somebody nominated 
him, but McKinley from the platform immediately withdrew his own 
name. The sentiment for McKinley, however, was growing every 



Americax History. Ill 

moment, and h\^ friends would not be still. A motion was put 
to elect him a delegate, but McKinley being chairman declared the 
motion out of order. General Grosvenor put the motion again and 
declared that it was carried, but again McKinle}' ruled it out of order. 
His opinion was appealed from and he was not sustained, and General 
Grosvenor put the motion again, and it was carried. McKinley would 
not have it, and was again overruled in spite of appeals. Finally there 
was a roll call, and he was elected in spite of himself. He went to 
the convention at Chicago and made a great name for himself as a 
leader of the Blaine men and as the writer of the platform of that 
year. It was his first work in national politics, and he was already 
famous. 

Again and again efforts to defeat him failed. His leadership in 
the tariff debate was continued by his fight against the Mills bill in 
1888 as the head of the Republican minority. It was in this year 
(1888) that he was elected to Congress for the seventh consecutive, 
but, as it proved, last time, and it was in this year also that the first 
suggestion of his name for the Presidency was made. 

Scrupulous Honor. — It was the Chicago Convention that nomi- 
nated Harrison The delegates, convinced that Sherman was a polit- 
ical impossibility, started a stampede for McKinley. 

It is perhaps the most remarkable story in the history of American 
politics. 

"Caesar thrice thrust away the kingly crown on the Lupercal," 
—I quote from the Xew York Mail and Express — "and McKinley has 
twice waved aside a Presidential nomination which might have been 
his. ISTo one who was privileged to witness the stirring scenes of the 
Eepublican National Convention in June, 1888, can ever forget them. 
No candidate had been able to secure a majority. Sherman, Alger, 
Allison, Harrison, Gresham and Depew all had a strong following, 
but none were anywhere near a nomination. McKinley at the head of 
the Ohio delegation, instructed to vote his delegation solidly for 
Sherman, was one of the heroes of the convention. 



112 Memorial Volume of 

The Convention Turns to McKinley.— "His entrance at each 
session was greeted with the wildest enthusiasm. Day and night he 
was at work among the various State delegations, laboring to secure 
votes for Ohio's great financier. On the sixth ballot a delegate voted 
for William McKinley, and was greeted by cheers which swelled again 
-and again before silence could be restored. The nest State that was 
called cast seventeen votes for McKinley, and again the cheers broke 
forth. The drift was unmistakably setting toward :McKinley like an 
ocean tide. 

"Everyone expected to see the Garfield nomination of 1880 
repeated. But they were disappointed. The roll call was interrupted 
by McKinley, who, leaping upon a chair at the end of the middle aisle, 
pale, but calm and determined, uttered a speech which, unpremeditated 
as it must have been, has never been surpassed for eloquence, for can- 
dor and unselfish loyalty. He said ; 

A Remarkable Speech. — " 'Mr. President and Gentlemen of the 
Convention: I am here as one of the chosen representatives of my 
State. I am here by resolution of the Eepublican State Convention, 
commanding me to cast my vote for John Sherman for President, 
and to use every worthy endeavor to secure his nomination. I accepted 
the trust, because my heart and judgment were in accord with the 
letter and spirit and purpose of that resolution. It has pleased 
certain delegates to cast their votes for me for President. I am not 
insensible to the honor they would do me, but in the presence of the 
duty resting upon me, I cannot remain silent with honor. I cannot 
consistently, with the wish of the State whose credentials I bear, and 
which has trusted me; I cannot consistently, with my own views of 
personal integrity, consent, or seem to consent, to permit my name 
to be used as a candidate before this convention. I would not respect 
myself if I could find it in my heart to do or to permit to be done that 
which could even be ground for any one to suspect that I wavered in 
my loyalty to Ohio, or my devotion to the chief of her choice and the 



American History. 113 

chief of mine. I do not request — I demand that no delegate who 
would not cast reflection upon me shall cast a ballot for me.' 

"The tide was turned, for who could resist such an appeal from 
a man so loyal, so honorable and so unselfish? On the seventh ballot 
Benjamin Harrison was named, but McKinley went home to Ohio 
stronger than ever in the hearts of his fellowmen." 

Thrusts Aside the Honor. — Hon. John Little, at one time a Con- 
gressional colleague of McKinley, in speaking of the incident, said 
that those who attended the Republican ISTational Convention of 1888 
could not fail to remember the frequent manifestations of friendship 
towards William McKinley from its very beginning. Every day at 
Ohio headquarters, and more and more as the week wore away, dele- 
gates from all parts of the country asked, "Why not nominate McKin- 
ley?" Mr. Little relates that just after midnight, before the final 
adjournment, McKinley took him by the arm at the Sherman head- 
quarters and requested him to go with him. He led the way to the 
rooms of the New Jersey delegation in the same building and inquired 
for the chairman of the delegation. 

"I have just been informed," said Mr. McKinley, "that your 
delegation has determined to cast a solid vote for me to-morrow. I 
called to inquire whether this is true." 

"I do not wish to give you a short answer. Major," responded the 
chairman, "but whether true or not this is a matter of our own con- 
cern. We act on our ovni responsibility in determining how we shall 
cast our vote, being accountable only to the Eepublicans of ISTeW 
Jersey in what we do." 

"I beg your pardon," warmly responded the Major, with a face 
somewhat flushed; "allow me to say that it is not a matter of your 
own concern alone. It deeply concerns me and I feel that it is my 
right to know your purpose. I am sure you will not deny me." 

"No, no," replied the chairman, "since you are so earnest about 

it, I see no impropriety in stating to you that we have determined to 
8 



114 Memorial Volume op 

cast our vote for William McKinley, Jr., of Ohio,, for President from 
DOW on to the end; and we shall not be alone." 

Mr. Little does not attempt to quote the response, but after 
pressing the claims of Mr. Sherman for the Presidency, his voice 
became somewhat tremulous from excitement, and he began to speak 
of the dishonor of receiving votes for himself after he had accepted 
the trust of delcgate-at-large to aid in accomplishing Mr. Sherman's 
nomination. Then raising his right arm, he said: 

'•Rather than that, I would suffer the loss of that good right arm ; 
yes, I would suffer death. To accept a nomination, if one were possi- 
ble, under these circumstances would inevitably lead to my defeat and 
it ought to lead to my defeat." 

The stillness which followed was intense. Presently the chair- 
man said: 

''Well, major, if that is the way you view it, of course we will not 
vote for you." 

"I thank you, profoundly," said McKinley. '"You don't know 
what relief that assurance gives me. Xow that you have so kindly 
granted my request let me make another of you." 
"\^'hat is it?" asked the chairman. 

"That you cast your vote for Mr. Sherman to-morrow." 
The chairman promised to consider the request and thought ^Ir. 
Sherman would get a part of the votes of his delegation. This dra- 
matic incident was related by Mr. Little to Mr. Eobert P. Porter, of 
the Cleveland Tfor/tZ, and may be accepted as authentic. 

A National Figure. — Events were now moving rapidly to make 
^Ir. McKinley a national figure. In Congress, for the last time, the 
death of William D. Kelley in January, 1S90, made McKinley the 
chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and leader of his party in 
the House. He was not unprepared for such a position, as his first 
speech in Congress had been on the tariff issue, and since 1881 his 
whole attention had been devoted to the study of the subject, so that 



American History. 115 

he was the master of the fact and theory. During these years of debate 
he had won from friends and opponents a reputation as a singularly 
clear and logical debater, who had a great talent for marshaling facts 
in order like a column of troops and throwing them against the vital 
point in a controversy. "He had a'pleasing voice of good, strong qual- 
ity, he never rambled, he told no anecdotes, he indulged in no sopho- 
moric flights of oratory; he went straight to the marrow of his theme 
by processes of argument and illustration so clear, simple and direct 
that he won respect and admiration from both sides of the House. 
One of his leading opponents used to say that he had to brace himself 
mentally not to be carried away by the strong undercurrent of McKin- 
ley's irresistibly persuasive talk." 

The McKinley Tariff. — As a result of these years of study, and 
experience, he laid before Congress and carried through two important 
measures — the customs administration bill and the famous McKinley 
tariff bill, the McKinley bill, by virtue of its eminence, the latter not 
only giving him fame with his countrymen but a notoriety in Europe 
of the most far-reaching character. 

Mr. Eussell, Mr. McKinley's biographer, in speaking of the enor- 
mous amount of work which was done by McKinley in framing this 
measure, says: 

"The room at the Capitol, and his little office at the Ebbitt House 
were the liveliest workshops in Washington during the Fifty-first 
Congress. The industry of framing the bill ran day and night, and 
into the small hours. The committee met in its room at the Capitol 
to hear all who wished to be heard on the bill, manufacturers, laborers, 
importers, free traders and protectionists. The McKinley bill was no 
'closed door' affair. Not a single interest, asking to be heard, was 
refused. At the very beginning, McKinley announced that he would 
listen to the testimony of any of the great interests of the country 
until the bill was finally passed. So frank and open was he in his 
work that the business of the country continued in a feeling of abso- 



116 Memorial Volume of 

lute security. There was no distrust, and rumors could not be used 
in Wall street to shake the foundations of finance or frighten com- 
mercial and business men. Wheels turned and looms hummed with 
no interruption." 

His Frankness. — "When he was pressing the passage of the bill 
his frankness was only matched by his amiability," wrote a friend. 
"So when the bill had been passed, McKinley was the most notable 
figure in Washington and he was respected alike by those who had 
fought with and those who had fought against him. There probably 
never was a measure passed in Washington of so much importance as 
this, with so little hard feeling and so few hard words. There was 
no mistaking ]\IcKinley's intention. He was always entirely frank 
and open and aboveboard. He tried no devious ways ; he had no con- 
cealed traps to spring. And so those who fought him hardest became 
his foremost well-wishers as a man, whatever they thought of his 
policies." 

Defeated for Congress. — The McKinley bill became a law on 
October G, 1890, and unfortunately on his head and on his bill fell 
all the odium of the hard times which were due to other policies of 
other men, and as a result of a third gerrymandering of his district 
and a reaction against his party he was defeated for Congress in 
November, but not imtil he had wrested three out of four counties 
of his district from the Democrats and was beaten by only 303 votes, 
having reduced the enemy's probable majority by 2,800. 

Of this bill Mr. McKinley has said: 

"The law of 1890 was enacted for the American people and the 
American home. Whatever mistakes were made in it were all made 
in favor of the occupations and the firesides of the American people. 
It didn't take away a single day's work from a solitary American 
workingman. It gave work and wages to all, such as they had never 
had before. It did it by establishing new and great industries in this 
country, which increased the demand for the skill and handiwork of 



American History. 117 

our laborers everywhere. It had no friends in Europe. It gave their 
industries no stimulus. It gave no employment to their labor at the 
expense of our own. 

"During more than two years of the administration of President 
Harrison, and down to its end, it raised all the revenue necessary to 
pay the vast expenditures of the government, including the interest 
on the public debt and the pensions. It never encroached upon the 
gold reserve, which in the past had always been sacredly preserved 
for the redemption of outstanding paper obligations of the government. 

"During all of its operations, down to the change and reversal 
of its policy by the election of 1892, no man can assert that in the 
industries affected by it wages were too high, although they were 
higher than ever before in this or any other country. If any such 
can be found I beg that they be named. I challenge the enemies of 
the law of 1890 to name a single industry of that kind. Further, 
I assert that in the industries affected by that law, which that law 
fostered, no American consumer suffered by the increased cost of any 
home products that he bought. He never bought them so low before, 
nor did he ever enjoy the benefit of so much open, free, home com- 
petition. Neither producer nor consumer, employer nor employe, 
suffered by that law." 



118 Memorial Volume of 

VIII. 
GOVERNOR OF OHIO. 

When it was known that great protectionist was defeated, 
men who did not understand the firm hold which he had on the people 
of his native State said that it was "the last of McKinley;" but no 
sooner was it known that he would not return to Congress than a 
movement was started for his nomination as governor. 

Chief Executive of His Native State. — The interest which was 
immediately awakened soon grew to an overwhelming enthusiasm, 
and when the Convention met no other name was presented, and he 
was nominated by acclamation. He was elected by a plurality over 
Campbell of more than twenty thousand votes. 

He was inaugurated in January, 1892, and made a model governor. 
When he entered upon the duties of his position he knew very little 
about the affairs of his State, except such as he had gained by read- 
ing, but he was not long in learning w^hat was expected of him, and 
he soon had the affairs of his office well in hand. He was a good judge 
of men and in consequence made admirable appointments; he also 
had an eye to economy, and kept down appropriations wherever 
possible, though in this he was seriously handicapped as he had no veto 
power. During his administration he had opportunity in several 
instances to display a high order of courage. The moment that troops 
were needed to preserve order in a strike McKinley did not hesitate 
to order them out. He seems never to have stopped to inquire into 
its effect on his political future. When he saw his duty he did it. 
When a regiment in performance of its duty fired to kill, he sustained 
the soldiers. All Ohio soon realized that their governor stood for law 
and order, and that he would continue to stand. 

A Creditable Record. — His course as governor was highly credit- 
able to him both as an executive and as a man. "He sent food/' 



American- History. 119 

says Mr. Ellis, "to starving miners, assuming all responsibility for 
payment and asking no one to contribute, tbough it was done; he 
urged arbitration, and by securing it in many instances brought 
troubles to an end after they had continued for months; he was as 
insistent with capitalists as with their employes that each should con- 
cede something and the disputants meet half way, but while merci- 
ful and kind, he was also stern and just. When the State was threat- 
ened with disorder, he called out the whole National Guard; he 
assumed military command as required by the Constitution, and for 
weeks slept rarely more than two or three hours out of each twenty- 
four; he checked lawlessness, and by his prompt effectiveness averted 
the lynching horrors which have disgraced some other States. Thus, 
though his second term was trying and tempestuous, it won the respect 
of good citizens everywhere and increased the estimation in which 
McKinley was held throughout the country itself." 

His Financial Misfortune. — It was during his first term as gov- 
ernor that he was overcome by a great financial misfortune which has 
now vbecome historic. One of his lifelong friends, a man who had 
helped him in his early years, went to the wall, and McKinley, being 
an endorser on his notes for a large amount, went with him. It is 
certain that McKinley had no interest whatever in the business which 
his friend Walker represented. He endorsed his notes simply as a 
friend, and because he felt that he was thereby paying a debt of grati- 
tude. In putting his name on the notes he was led to believe that 
many of them were made to take up old ones. He supposed that he 
had really endorsed about $15,000 worth, but when the failure came it 
was found that the old notes had not been paid and that the entire 
amount footed up to $118,000. While his political opponents did 
not believe that he had done anything wrong in the matter, they took 
advantage of his calamity to insist that he was deficient in business 
ability. It should be remembered, however, that Mr. Tod, a man of 
e-xtraordinary business ability, declared that he would have endorsed 
Waiker'a papers for half a million dollars the day before his failure. 



120 Memorial Yolume of 

McKinley had succeeded by severe economy in acquiring property 
to the amount of $20,000; to this his wife added her inheritance of 
$75,000, insisting that the debts should be paid to the last penny. The 
course of Mr. McKinley and his wife deeply touched the hearts of the 
people, and letters began to pour in upon the governor from every 
point of the compass, enclosing contributions to aid in the payment 
of the claims. In every instance, however, the money was returned, 
with thanks for the sympathy shown him. This led to a change in 
the tactics of his friends, and they began to send him money without 
giving their names. Xot knowing what to do with these anonj^mous 
gifts, he finally, at the advice of his friends, placed his affairs in the 
hands of several trustees. In a few weeks his trustees came to him 
with the announcement that every note on which he appeared as 
endorser had been paid, and that not a dollar of the private fortune 
of his wife and himself had been touched. This did not satisfy Mr. 
McKinley or his wife, but the only reply they got was : 

"This is nobody's business but ours." 

Only the trustees themselves knew where the money came from 
and they have kept the secret well. 

Elected to a Second Term. — His second election to the governor- 
ship was by a pluralit}^ of 180,000, the largest ever known in that 
State up to that time. This overwhelming tribute to his worth 
attracted wide attention, and it began to dawn upon the people that 
he was destined for far greater honors. 



Ajmeiucan Histoky. 121 

IX. 

AS A CAMPAIGNER. 

In 1894 the prevailing depression had created an abnormal interest 
in politics, and the whole country was at fever heat. There had not 
been a time since the war when there was such great need for a leader. 
It was natural that in such a crisis the Eepublicans of the country 
should turn to Mr. McKinley. He accepted the trust, and at once 
became the towering figure in the campaign of that year. It was one 
of the most remarkable campaigns in the liistory of American politics. 
During the fall Mr. McKinley made a tour of nineteen States, deliver- 
ing not less than twenty speeches in each. During two days in Kansas 
he spoke to not less than one hundred and fifty thousand people. He 
spoke three hundred and seventy one times during the campaign, and 
in one day delivered seventeen speechs. Of this campaign Mr. S. G. 
McClure says: 

A Kemarkable Campaig-n. — "The combined tours far exceeded a 
distance half way round the world. It was one of the marvels of the 
man that he was able to undergo all the fatigue which this immense 
feat implies, and yet close the campaign in as good health as when he 
began, and witliout having lost a pound of weight. Very often he was 
the last of the party to retire, and almost invariably was the first to 
rise. He seemed tireless. Every State committee in the Mississippi 
Valle}^ and beyond it, apparently took it for granted that the gallant 
champion of patriotism, protection and prosperity could not be over- 
worked. When he consented to make one speech for them, they forth- 
with arranged a half a dozen short stops eti route, and kept him talking 
almost constantly from daybreak until late at night. He agreed to 
make forty-six set speeches in all during the campaign ; when he had 
concluded, he had not only made them, but he had spoken at no less 
than three hundred and twenty-five other points as well. 



133 Memorial Volume of 

Breaks the Record. — "For over eight weeks he averaged more than 
seven speeches a day. At least two of these daily were to large audi- 
ences where he was compelled to talk for an hour or more ; the others 
varied from ten minutes to half an hour in length, and were frequently 
addressed to crowds of five thousand people. On several occasions as 
the special train was hurrying him along he was called out for a talk 
before he had breakfasted, and would find to his surprise that two or 
three thousand persons had gathered at that early hour to see him. It 
was not McKinley who sought all this; it was the people who sought 
McKinley." 

Mr. McClure adds that the glowing accounts which the Press 
Associations carried about his meetings were in fact modest and mod- 
erate narratives of what transpired daily. The correspondents were 
expected to give non-partisan accounts, and did so, though some of the 
opposition papers, which were served by the Press Association, were 
growling at what they assumed was the exaggeration the correspondents 
were guilty of. "The fact is, the meetings were not overdrawn in the 
least. If an}i;hing, the press narratives did not do him full justice, 
simph' because to have done so would have called for general protests 
from the Democratic papers and the charge that the accounts were 
highly colored. It is not strange that this should be the case. ISTo one 
who was not with McKinley part or all the time could form an 
adequate conception of the enthusiasm and interest with which he was 
received in all parts of the nation. It had to be seen to be realized." 

His Pov^ers of Endurance. — Only a man of the most remarkable 
powers of endurance could have gone through what McKinley did in 
the campaigns of '91-'96. Murat Halstead, who was with him much of 
the time, says that in that period he probably spoke to more than 
fifteen million people and shook hands with a million and a half. He 
made about a thousand speeches averaging an hour in length. Such a 
task was enough to test the nerve of any man, but McKinley went 
through it all without the least symptoms of illness, though of course 
he was often wearied and worn. 



American- History. 123 

Few men have been better fitted for such a task. He was a born 
campaigner. He had a constitution of iron and remarkable recupera- 
tive powers. His lungs were strong, and his vocal powers were all that 
one could desire. He could sleep under the most uncomfortable condi- 
tions, and eat anything in almost any quantity and at any time. 

A Man of the People. — Then, too, he was a man of the people, 
and the people instinctively recognized him as a brother. He knew how 
to get along with people. He remembered faces well and could gener- 
ally recall a name, and everywhere he went he was sure to meet old 
friends and to make new ones. He was always approachable, and could I 
always talk easily and freely with those he met. 

Assemblyman Adler, of New York City, met him on a railway 
train in 1891 near Steubenville, Ohio. Eelating the incident to a Sun 
reporter he said : 

"I boarded a train one day at Steubenville, and the brakeman said 
to me, 'Go inside that car. There's the Major there. Just introduce 
yourself.' I walked up to Major McKinley, held out my hand and 
said: 'Major, allow me to congratulate the next Governor of Ohio.' 

" 'Thank you,' he said with a smile. 'You're a traveling man I take 
it. Sit down. I am always glad to meet you gentlemen.' 

"I sat beside him, and I will never forget the pleasant conversa- 
tion we had. He talked glowingly of the future of the United States, 
and incidentally the tariff issue was brought up. 

" 'Young man,' he said, 'we love the United States. When any- 
body advocates free trade for this grand, rich Eepublic of ours just 
tell them for an answer that one of the reasons that you love this 
country is for the gold there is in it, and you want it to stay here.' 

"At that time I had no thought of going into politics, but from 
then on I was a protectionist. In 1895 when I was a member of the 
Assembly, Speaker Fish one day announced to the members : 'Gentle- 
men, allow me to introduce to you Governor McKinley, of Ohio,' and 
we members all passed up to shake hands with the Governor. Wlien 



124 Memorial Volume of 

it came to my turn he looked at me sharply and asked: ^Aren't you 
the young man I met on a train one day near Steubenville ? I think 
you are and that you said you were a drummer,' 

" 'I am/ I replied. 

" 'Then what are you doing up here ?' he asked. 

" 'The people down where I live sentenced me up here/ I said. 

" 'Are you a member of the Assembly ?' he asked. 

" 'Yes, and a good Eepublican member/ I answered. 

" 'I am glad to hear it/ he rej)lied. 'I am glad to see one of your 
profession so highly honored. I won't forget you, young man.' 

"It was only about a year ago that I went to Washington to seek 
a pardon for one of my constituents. It was a deserving case, and I 
felt that after I talked with the President he would grant my request. 
The minute I entered his chamber he recognized me and held out his 
hand. 

" 'I am pleased to see you,' he said. 'You are the young drummer 
I met on the train in Ohio and afterward in Albany. Are you still in 
politics ?' 

" 'Yes ; I am still a member there,' I said. 

"I explained my errand, and my request was granted right away. 
The next day I had the pleasure of restoring to his wife and children 
a father who had been sentenced to a long term in Sing Sing for a 
crime of which I knew he was innocent." 

Always on the Lookout for Information, — Mr. Halstead says that 
it was especially interesting to observe in a campaign how anxious 
Mr, McKiuley was for information. When he went to a town he would 
listen to the talk of the politicians, to every statement about party con- 
ditions, and local affairs, and especially about every industry. He 
would not cross-question them, he would only listen, and at the meeting 
afterward it would be seen that their talk had gone to the spot, and 
he would use the information he got to give a touch of local color to 
his argument, something he could always do with great effect. 



American History. 125 

It used to be often said that lie had but one speech. That was 
because the tariff of which he was the recognized exponent was sure to 
come in for discussion. Of course the basis of this discussion was 
uecessarily the same, but his language and illustrations were constantly 
varying. 

Those who attended him in his campaigns said that he would out- 
last all who accompanied him. He knew how to take things pleasantly. 
He had the knack of making people feel that he was not only satisfied 
with what they had done for him but that he felt honored by their 
attentions. On the train he would talk familiarly with the conductors 
and brakemen, and they became very proud of his friendship. While 
waiting at a station he would generally manage to get in conversation 
with the baggage man or the station agent or an}- one who might be 
loitering about, and thus every da}" and every hour he was adding to his 
army of friends. If those who accompanied him grumbled about the 
arrangements that were made for them he did not hesitate to take them 
aside and reprove them, and if he found them engaged in levity of a 
hurtful sort he reproved them for that too. It was particularly notice- 
able that when he came to a town that was noted for its religious 
atmosphere he would insist that every one who went with him should 
in every possible way show respect for the feelings of the people whose 
guests they were. 



126 Memorial Volume of 

X. 

AS AN ORATOR. 

As a public speaker ]\IcKiiiley stood in the front rank of those 
who carefully studied the matter of their discourses, leaving the man- 
ner to nature and the occasion. Whatever else he might be he was 
always natural. He never dealt in sensations. He never went to work 
to make people weep. He never tried to stir up excitement. He simply 
thought out as thoroughly as he could what he wanted to say, and then 
said it in the simplest and most unaffected way he could. His style 
was clearness and straightforwardness exemplified, and so direct that 
no effort was required to follow him even through the least interesting 
parts of his speech. 

A Happy Faculty. — "He displa3'ed to perfection that happy fac- 
ulty for which he has since become famous of clothing with the mag- 
netic charm of life the cold, practical facts of economic philosophy and 
experience. His voice, high but resonant, clear and musical as a bell, 
pierced to every corner of the house, and it was evident to his hearers 
that a new leader had sprung into the front ranks of the great Repub- 
lican party." 

Noble Sentiments. — Mr. Halstead says that phrases and sentences, 
would come trickling and bubbling forth from him apparently without 
preparation, and sometimes they would form the most beautiful con- 
stellations of great oratorical effect and oratorical beauty. It could 
not be said that he was epigrammatic, and he will not live in tha 
memory of the people as a proverb maker; yet he left behind him some 
sentiments as noble as ever fell from the lips of man. 

At Petersburg (Virginia) in 1885 he said: "I am for America 
because America is for the common people." 

At Woodstock (Conn.) in 1891 he said: "If the party is wrong, 



American History. 127 

make it better. That's the business of the true partisan and good 
citizen." 

It was he who said that "the Xorth and the South no longer 
divided on old lines but on principles and policies." 

It was at the Omaha Exposition that he uttered the noble senti- 
ment, 'Teace is the national desire and the goal of every American 
aspiration." 

At the Peace Jubilee in Chicago he cried, "Duty determines des- 
tiny." 

At the Peace Jubilee in Atlanta he said : "The time has now come 
in the evolution of feeling under the providence of God when in the 
spirit of fraternity we should share with you in the care of the graves 
of the Confederate soldiers." 

At Tuskegee he reminded the colored students that "intelligence 
and industry are the best possessions which any man can have, and 
every man can have them;" and he remarked to the surviving volun- 
teers returned from the Philippines, that "these heroes died for their 
country, and there is no nobler death." 

In his tribute to Washington at Mount Ternon he said: "The 
nation is his best eulogist and his noblest monument." 

And who will ever forget the last sentence of his last message to 
the people the day before the final tragedy: "Our earnest prayer is 
that God will graciously vouchsafe prosperity, happiness and peace to 
all our neighbors and like blessings to all the peoples and powers of 
the earth." 

Not a Humorist. — There was a noticeable absence of funny stories 
from his speeches. He was not a humorist, and besides, he always felt 
that his cause was too sacred for jokes. He went at his work with the 
tremendous earnestness of the old pioneer preachers who would save 
the people from their sins. Yet, while he was in no sense a humorist, 
few men had a keener sense of humor. The story is told that a New 
York magazine not long ago sent one of its best writers to Canton with 



128 Memorial Volume of 

instructions to secure a story on MeKinley humor. The young man 
spent nearly two weeks interviewing the President's life-long friends, 
and was compelled at last to leave without material. There was no 
MeKinley humor. 

"I have yet to find a man who has heard ]\IcKinley tell a comic 
anecdote/' he wrote. "He seems to enjoy humor as much as any one, 
but never appears as a source of amusement. One could conceive that 
he might have a reluctance to appear as a comedian since he is the 
Chief Executive, believing it incompatible with the dignity of the 
office. But even in his early days in politics I can find no record of 
his relating stories. In any event, that is the result of my investiga- 
tion and I am ready to give up the trial." 

One of His Jokes. — The little town of Oberlin^ Ohio, is probably 
one of the straitest-laced places in America. It is the home of a univer- 
sity, and the town-fathers have so jealously guarded the morals of the 
young people that not only is the sale of liquor prohibited but even 
tobacco is unknown in the stores. A Mr. Monroe, at one time a Congress- 
man from the Oberlin district, was in the habit of entertaining all the 
political leaders who visited the place, and during Mr. McKinley's first 
gubernatorial campaign he stopped at Mr. Monroe's house. 

A Town Without a Cuspidor. — After dinner Mr. MeKinley took 
a cigar from his pocket and casually remarked to his host that if he 
did not mind he would have a smoke, ilr. Monroe looked aghast, but 
not desiring to appear inhospitable and yet dreading the social ostra- 
cism which he would doubtless suffer if a guest should be seen smoking 
on his piazza, he conducted Mr. MeKinley to a back balcony on the 
second floor, where he was screened from the public view, and told him 
to go ahead. MeKinley lighted his cigar, and leaning back in his chair 
called for a cuspidor, as all good smokers do. 

"Why there is not such a thing in town," replied Mr. Monroe, and 
the coal bucket was pressed into service. 

Soon after the meeting Mr. MeKinley spokft at East Liverpool, 



American- History. 129 

which is a great pottery centre. He mentioned his experience to a 
friend who was the proprietor of one of the big potteries there, and 
then said : 

"By the way, Taylor, just for a joke send a gross of your china 
spittoons to ]\Ir. Monroe. Don't tell him where they came from or he 
will suspect that I had a hand in it." 

Colonel Taylor immediately crated a beautiful assortment of 
chinaware and sent it to Oberlin. A year later McKinley was again 
a guest at ]\Ir. Monroe's house. He went with a liberal supply of good 
smoking material and soon asked for the back balcony. Lighting a 
cigar, he remarked : 

"You haven't a cuspidor in town yet, have you, Monroe ?" 

"Well now, that is funny," replied his host ; "but a few days after 
you were here last year some one sent me a whole crate of those things. 
Of course I had no use for them, and they were such nice china and 
so prettily painted that my wife used them all for flower-pots. There 
is not one about the house not in use." 

An Exception. — This statement that there was never any McKinley 
humor is after all an exaggeration. On Monday after the tragedy in 
Buffalo, when everybody about the house was happy over the apparent 
improvement in the President's condition, the doctors were in his room 
feeling his pulse and obtaining the necessary data for a bulletin. "The 
President kept up a running conversation with us," said one of the phj^- 
sicians afterwards in telling the story, "and for very good reasons, we 
did not want him to exhaust his strength uselessly. One of the doctors 
stepped to the bedside and said : 'Mr. McKinley, you are not to talk. We 
have decided you must not talk.' The President's dark eyes were bent 
on the one who gave the order, and without moving a muscle of his 
face, he said : 

" Ton gentlemen think you don't have a chance to boss the Presi- 
dent of the United States often and you are improving youT oppor- 
tunity.' " 

9 



130" Memorial Volume of 

His Intense Conviction. — After all there was no need for humor 
in McKinley's speeches, for he had something infinitely better. He 
had sincerity. It was his intense conviction that carried the day. ISTo 
one could listen to him without feeling that he believed in his prin- 
ciples and that he would stand by them to the end. After the Congres- 
sional campaign of 1882, when he was left with a very slender majority, 
a Congressman said to liim rather sneeringiy : 

"Your constituents do not seem to support you, Mr. McKinley." 

McKinley answered: 

"My fidelity to my constituents is not measured by the support 
they give me. I have convictions I would not surrender if ten thou- 
sand majority were entered against me." 



American^ History, 131 

XI. 

THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF '96. 

It was almost inevitable that a public man with the record which 
]\IcKinley had should soon become a candidate for the Presidential 
nomination of his party. In 1896 the concurrence of hard times with 
the adoption of a low tariff policy by the Democrats gave the Repub- 
lican party an opportunity to put the responsibility for the existing 
state of affairs upon free trade, and to maintain that the only way 
to secure a return of prosperity was to re-establish the old protective 
system. 

The Logical Candidate. — '"'Of course," said the Evening Post, "if 
this were to be done, the logical candidate was the man who had car- 
ried through Congress that McKinley bill which the people had at first 
rejected, but which they were now supposed to recognize as wise and 
good. Mr. ]\reKinley had the great advantage of an exceptionally wide 
acquaintance with Republican politicians throughout the country, to 
supplement and guide the popular favor which he enjoyed. He was 
fortunate in having no serious rival among the party leaders except 
ilr. Reed, who was by no means so well known to the people and who 
had little strength with the ^vire-puIlers and pipe-layers. Finally his 
canvass was taken in charge by the most efficient manager ever known 
in American politics — Marcus A. Hanna, of Cleveland, who applied 
'business methods' with a success which was the despair of those who 
tried to secure delegates for anybody else — especially in the South. It 
was a foregone conclusion that Mr. McKinley should be nominated, 
and it was not strange that over two-thirds of the delegates voted for 
him on the only ballot that was taken." 

During the Convention. — The convention was held in Chicago. 
During its session McKinley remained with his family at the home in 



132 Memorial Volume of 

Canton. The telegraph companies had arranged to carry the news to 
him at the earliest possible moment, and in his house there was a long- 
distance 'phone connecting with the auditorium in which the conven- 
tion was held. An expert sat at each end of the wire. McKinley was 
the calmest man in the whole group as he waited for the news. His 
neighbors and several newspaper correspondents were with him, while 
his mother, now eighty-six years of age, sat in a room across the hall 
with Mrs. McKinley. Mr. Ellis tells the story : 

The Nomination. — "After lunch McKinley took his place beside 
the operator at the telephone. The young man announced the different 
nominations as the rest of the visitors gathered around and intently 
listened. 

" 'Foraker is about to speak,' he said, with his ear to the instru- 
ment. 

"A few minutes later he added : 

" 'He has just mentioned your name and the convention has gone 
wild.' 

"The anxious minutes passed, and, looking in the faces of the 
group, the operator smilingly added: 

" 'They are keeping it up.' 

" 'I have seen cheering contests in other conventions,' remarked 
McKinley, who was recalling some of his experiences, when the oper- 
ator beckoned him forward and placed the instrument to his ear. 

"Even the veteran was impressed by the roar that rolled across 
three States from the tumultuous convention hall to the humble home 
in Ohio, guided by one of the most wonderful inventions of man. 

"Finally after a long time the operator added : 

" 'Foraker is trying it again. He says ' 

"And he repeated the glowing words as they were uttered hun- 
dreds of miles away. 

"When the voting began McKinley jotted down the figures on a 
tablet. Suddenly came the announcement : 



American History. 133 

" ^Oliio — forty-six for j\IcKiiiley !' 

How He Received the News. — "That decided it. The Major 
stopped figuring, and rising to his feet, walked across the hall and 
kissed his wife and venerable mother. He had hardly done so when the 
windows rattled from the boom of a cannon fired but a short distance 
away. Canton had heard the news and had begun its celebration. 

"It seemed as if in a few minutes the streets were swarming with 
people, all wending their wa}- to the home of Major McKinley. The 
congratulations showered upon him were almost without number, while 
his acknowledgments were fervent and in the best of taste. It seemed 
as if Canton had become the Mecca for weeks following for half the 
people in the country. The candidate remained at home during the 
campaign, making responses to the delegations of numerous associa- 
tions that called, but leaving the campaign wholly in the hands of his 
political manager." 

His Brilliant Opponent. — William J. Bryan, Mr. McKinlej's 
opponent, entered the fight with marvelous energy, traveling from city 
to city, addressing great throngs in the public halls and on the plat- 
form of his railway car, at fairs and mills and workshops, and at all 
hours of the day and night. As a campaigner he was quite the equal of 
Mr. McKinley himself, and despite the popularity of the Eepublican 
candidate, many of his supporters had misgivings of his success. 

The Situation. — This campaign was altogether different from 
what Mr. McKinley had long planned and expected. His specialty as 
a public man — I quote from the Evening Post — '^lad always been the 
tariff. He had, of course, supported whatever policy his party at any 
time advocated, for he was always a faithful partisan, but he had 
never cared much for anything except protection. Cleveland had given 
the country 'free trade,' and thus precipitated financial distress; 
McKinley would restore protection, and prosperity would come in its 
train — 'the advance agent of prosperity,' an admirer styled him. This 
was what he meant to run on. The national platform must have planks 



134 Memorial Volume of 

on other subjects^, however, and the must puzzling was the question of 
the national finances. For many years the silver question, in various 
forms, had been before the country. Not long after the close of the 
Civil War there was an earnest attempt to secure further inflation of 
the currency, which was depreciated much below gold, the first demand 
being for the issue of a great additional quantity of greenbacks. The 
movement was favored by most Democrats and by many Eepublieans, 
but it was finally defeated when President Grant vetoed the so-called 
Inflation bill in 1875. 

Sixteen to One. — "The next form which the craze took was that of 
a demand for the free coinage of silver at the ratio of sixteen to one, 
which came before Congress during Mr. McKinley's first session. Most 
Democrats favored this policy also, and so did many Republicans, 
especially in the States beyond the Alleghanies. Every Eepresentative 
was thus at liberty to vote as he chose, and on the fifth of November, 
1877, Mr. McKinley cast his vote for a free-coinage scheme, urged by 
'Silver Dollar' Bland, of Missouri. He had plenty of company among 
Republican Congressmen from his own State, Indiana and the Middle 
West generally, but many of the ablest members were on the other 
side, like Garfield and Reed. It was impossible to carry the scheme 
through Congress, but a compromise was cooked up, which provided for 
the cumpulsory coinage of not less than $2,000,000 nor more than 
$4,000,000 silver bullion a month. This also was objected to by the 
sound-money men, and was vetoed by Mr. McKinley's old war com- 
mander. President Hayes, but the young Congressman refused to sus- 
tain the veto, taking his stand with those who wanted to 'do something 
for silver,' and who would take a half loaf if they could not get the 
whole. 

Both Parties Dallied. — "As time passed both parties dallied with 
the question. Mr. Cleveland earnestly opposed free coinage, and during 
his first term repressed the disposition of many Democratic Congress- 
men to make it a feature of party policy. Meanwhile many Eepub- 



American" History, 135 

lican leaders were timid. They advanced far enough to pronounce 
against free coinage, but they shrank from declaring openly for the 
gold standard, and sought to devise some compromise which would 
satisfy' the silver men of the further West without too much offending 
the sound-money people of the East. What came to be known as the 
Sherman Silver Purchase Act was adopted as the way out of the diffi- 
cultv during the first session of Congress under Harrison. It substi- 
tuted for the existing system of silver coinage the purchase by the 
government of silver bullion to the amount of 4,500,000 ounces a 
month. As leader of the House, Mr, McKinley carried this measure 
through the lower branch, and he shared in the satisfaction expressed 
by many of the partv^ managers over what was considered a verj^ shrewd 
'dodge,' by which they had avoided actual support of free coinage, 
which was offensive in the East, and could still get credit in the West 
by boasting, as the Indiana Eepublican platform of 1890 did, that the 
party had taken 'a long yet prudent step toward free coinage.' After 
he lost his seat in Congress, Mr. McKinley continued to make bids for 
the support of the silver men, taking pains to denounce Mr. Cleveland 
for his firm adherence to the gold standard. 

Growth, of Sound-Money Sentiment. — "Sound-money sentiment 
grew in strength among the Republicans as time passed, but there was 
still an element in the party, especially beyond the Mississippi, which 
clung stoutly to the silver fallacy. ^Ir. :\IcKinley's tendency always 
was to compromise, and he wanted to have a plank on the financial 
question in the platform of the Eepublican National Convention which 
would not offend either side, and then make the tariff the chief issue. 
But the sound-money men in the convention were strong enough to 
force a plank which went so far toward the gold standard that the 
pronounced silver men walked out of the hall, under the lead of Senator 
Teller. The Democrats, on the other hand, rushed to the other extreme 
by declaring outright for 'sixteen to one,' and nominating as their can- 
didate William J. Bryan, who made the fight upon that issue. 



136 Memorial Volume of 

A Reluctant Champion of Gold. — "The Republicans wlio in 1877 
had favored free coinage, who in 1890 had endorsed a 'long step' in 
that direction, and who in 189G wished still to figure as a 'friend of 
silver/ were thus compelled reluctantly to appear as the champion of 
the gold standard. With equal reluctance, Democrats and Indepen- 
dents who abominated a high tariff, and who would have voted against 
Mr. McKinley if the tariff had been the issue, were compelled to sup- 
port him as the only way to insure the maintenance of the gold 
standard and tlie preservation of the national honor. It was the most 
extraordinary campaign which had ever been known, in the fact that 
many of the successful party's most effective advocates, like Carl 
Schurz, were men who distrusted its candidate, were dissatisfied with 
his record, and were hostile to the protective system which he cham- 
pioned, and yet felt constrained to urge his election, in order to avert 
the success of a nominee and a policy that were alike intolerable. The 
result was the success of Mr. McKinley by 271 out of 447 votes in the 
electoral college, and over 600,000 plurality in the popular vote." 



American Histoey. 137 

XII. 
PRESIDENT OF ALL THE PEOPLE. 

The election to the Presidenc)' came to Mr. McKinley when he 
was fifty-three years old, after a long experience in public life as 
Congressman and after valuable executive training as Governor of his 
native State. He had also come in touch with the people in a way that 
put him thoroughly in sympathy with the countr}''s hopes and aspira- 
tions. He believed he knew what the people believed in, and was 
convinced that he knew the policies that would insure their welfare and 
the permanent revival of the industries of the countr}'. 

A Man of the People. — ^Vhen he went into the White House he 
was hand in hand with the plain people of the nation, and he remained 
with them to the end. As I have already said, he had a faculty for 
making friends, and at the time of his election he had hosts of them 
in every part of the countr}'. He had a remarkable talent for getting 
on with the people everywhere, and he soon came to be on the very 
best of terms, not onl)'^ with every member of his own party in each 
branch of Congress, hut also with nearly all of the Senators and Eepre- 
sentatives of the opposition. 

Perhaps nothing gave him more pleasure dtiring his public life 
than the opportunities which he took whenever available to mingle with 
the people. He particularly resembled Abraham Lincoln in his fond- 
ness for the plain masses. In his tours through the countr}' he was 
always democratic in his familiar greetings of the crowds, and in his 
efforts to make them feel that they were of the same blood with him. 

On one of these tours it is related that in a small town in Illinois 
when the President's train was just leaving the station, a man who 
up to that time had had no chance to get near the President's car 
fought his way through the crowd, climbed to the rear platform, thrust 
his hand over the rail and cried : 



138 Memorial Volume of 

"Give us a shake, Bill." 

The President laughed and gave the man a hearty grip of the 
hand, though he had already turned to enter his compartment at the 
end of the car. 

Enjoying a Mob. — At another time, in Burlington, la., the Presi- 
dent was literally mobbed when trying to pass to his car from the 
carriage in which he had been driven through the streets of the town. 
It was evening, and the crowd, to use the reporter's phrase, hurled 
itself at him in such a solid mass that he could not walk through it in 
the ordinary way. His train was waiting for him, and the members 
of his Cabinet had all reached it. Many of them had gone to their 
rooms, for it was nearly midnight and they had assumed that the 
President would get to his car without difficulty. But the delay in 
starting the train brought them to the platforms, and there they saw 
the head of the nation literally "bucking the mob." 

"Yet it was a most orderly mob — for a mob. Not one of the people 
would have harmed the President, but they wanted to get close to him. 
And he — ^he was smiling broadly through it all, although making only 
a snail's progress, and to do that he had to put his shoulder forward 
with his elbow well out and forge his way ahead, amid the cheers of 
the throng." 

"He likes that!" said George Bruce Cortelypu, his secretary, 
"there is nothing he likes better. He enjoys being right down there 
among the people, close to them in all their natural moods. And all 
he needs is to get that right shoulder of his forward and he will go 
through them all without hurting anyone's feelings." 

When warned that there might be danger in the public receptions, 
which he so much enjoyed, he replied that all banquets might be 
omitted if it be deemed desirable, but that he would continue to have 
and attend the receptions for the people. As Mr. Eggleston has said, 
he recognized that the people wished to honor him and themselves 
by an honest handshake. He saw that patriotism was aroused and 



American History. 139 

quickened by this mingling of the President with all the people; he saw 
that they would better understand and appreciate their power and 
privileges under our form of government if they could by personal 
contact clearly perceive that the President is but a citizen of the 
Eepublic, chosen by their votes to act as their representative in his 
particular department; and, like other Presidents that preceded him, 
he drew inspiration from meeting his fellow-citizens face to face. 

Selecting His First Cabinet. — Perhaps Mr. McKinley never dis- 
played his desire to give the nation his best thought and care more 
deeply than in his selection of his first Cabinet. Several weeks 
passed after his election before he made his first selection — Senator 
John Sherman, whom he offered the Secretaryship of State. It 
should be remembered, by the way, that at that time Mr. Sherman 
was apparently in the height of his powers, although two months later 
indications of physical and mental weakness began to appear. 

The selection of a Secretary of Treasury was exceedingly diffi- 
cult, there being a dearth of material for this particularly impor- 
tant position. Every man who was mentioned seemed to possess some 
objectionable trait. In McKinley's extremity a Chicago newspaper 
man suggested the name of Mr. Gage, a banker of that city. The 
suggestion was not seriousl}^ considered at the time by anyone except 
Mr. McKinley himself, and all were surprised a few weeks later when 
Mr. Gage was summoned to Canton. He was told that his services 
were needed. ]\Ir. Gage, however, said that he had not been identified 
with the high tariff wing of the party, and, it is said, even confessed 
that he had once voted for Mr. Cleveland. 

"Xever mind," said Mr. McKinley; "I want a practical financier 
at the head of the Treasury. Our ideas regarding revenues will not 
so conflict that you need hesitate to accept this duty and honor. The 
nation needs you as much as ever a nation needed a man." 

In the Hands of the Reporters. — General Alger was invited to 
Canton and given an opportunity to accept the war portfolio. He 



140 Mfmorial Volume of 

accepted, and in a few moments went to pay his respects to Mrs. 
McKinley. While he was gone Mr. McKinley came out to the news- 
paper men, who tried, as usual, to interview him, and with poor 
success. An old friend among them, however — a man who had accom- 
panied :McKinley in some of his campaigns, approached him and said : 

"Mr. McKinley, if I were to ask you if you have offered the port- 
folio of war to General Alger what would you say ?" 

"I should say," replied Mr. McKinley, "that you had better ask 
General Alger." 

There was a ripple of amusement, and a moment later when 
General Alger came into the room he said very frankly : 

"Well, gentlemen, the President has offered me the position of 
War Secretary in his Cabinet and I have accepted." 

After this incident the newspaper men were unable to get any 
information from prospective candidates for the Cabinet, as the 
President took care to request them to keep their secrets until they had 
gone home. Mr. Long came and accepted the Interior Secretaryship, 
and returned home without the newspaper men getting a hint of it. 

Judge McKenna came all the way from California at the Presi- 
dent's request and was offered the position of Attornej'-General. 
When the President had laid the matter before him the Judge said : 

"Mr. McKinley there are nine reasons why I cannot accept 
your offer." 

"Name the reasons. Judge," replied the President; "possibly we 
can remove or avoid some of them." 

The Judge said his first reason was that he was a Eoman Catholic ; 
the second, that he was without sufficient means to live the life of a 
Cabinet official; the third, that his aspirations were judicial rather 
than political, and so on. 'Mr. ^IcKinley replied: 

"I am to be President of white and black, of Protestants and' 
Catholics, of the ISTorth and the South, and the West and the East." 

He said that the administration Mas to be a business administra- 



American History. 141 

tion, and not a social one, so that the expenses of entertaining would 
not be great. He also spoke of a position upon the Supreme bench 
which would soon be open, and which would be a fitting termination to 
a man's judicial aspirations. 

The rest of the members of the Cabinet were selected with the 
same great care. Geographical distributions as well as personal 
fitness guided him in his selection. "Each of these men," said a writer, 
"knov/ing Mr. McKinley but slightly at first, and seeing him in the 
trying times of war and the piping times of peace, surrounded by 
national dangers and personal sorrows, learned to love him and to 
revere his memory. N^one more than these appreciates his pure per- 
sonality and his conscientious Christianity, realizes his devotion to his 
invalid helpmate or believes more implicitly that he now sleeps secure 
'Nearer, My God, to Thee.' " 

The Dingley Act. — His record in the Presidency is too fresh to 
need attention at great length. True to his faith in his favorite doc- 
trine of protection as the source of national prosperity, he convened 
Congress in extra session immediately after his inauguration to pass a 
new tariff bill. This bill, which was a thoroughgoing protection 
measure, known as the Dingley Act, became a law on the twenty-fourth 
of July following. 

His first administration was largely taken up with the Spanish 
war and the policy of the United States toward the former possessions 
of Spain. The results of his first term may be summarized as 
follows: The Dingley tariff, the sound-money law, the war with 
Spain, the annexation of Porto Eico, the Philippines and San Juan, 
the annexation of Hawaii and Tutulia and the organization of Cuba. 

Great Force of Character. — There was a popular impression when 
he entered the Presidency that he was a man without definite policy, 
and that he was wholly under the influence of Senator Hanna and 
others. This impression has remained in some quarters until this 
day. It seems to have grown out of his delightful manner. As a 



142 Memorial Volume of 

matter of fact he was a man of great force of character, and some of 
his friends insist tliat he was as fully determined as Grover Cleveland. 
He worked with a set purpose to accomplish his designs, and he often 
had hard work to bring Congress to his way of thinking, but in no 
respect did he give an inch, although he had such a pleasant way of 
carrying his point that one was hardly conscious that he was carry- 
ing it. 

His Methods of Work. — In the White House Mr. McKinley was 
a methodical and tireless worker, though he was seldom known to 
rush. He never postponed business from one day to another, and was 
never given to those dashes of ambition and despair which fritter 
away the time of so m;any talented men. He was a born executive, 
endowed to a remarkable degree with the power to make others work 
for him. He knew how to direct, how to place resposibilities upon 
men's shoulders, and how to leave the details to others in order to give 
himself to more important tasks. 

He was an early riser, and before nine had breakfasted and was 
reading the morning papers. A little before ten he went into the 
Cabinet Eoom, which he used as his private office. There he looked 
over his engagements and received callers. To every one who came 
he gave a cordial handshake and an opportunity to make known his 
business. He usually remained standing through the interview, but 
as some one has said, if he was sitting it was time to retire the moment 
he arose. He allowed his work to be interrupted by the arrival of any 
Cabinet officer, Senator or Eepresentative, and however urgent the 
demands of the day, every one who came went away feeling pleasant. 

He always insisted on going over important papers and altering 
some phrase or expression in order to clear up or qualify its meaning. 
The members of his Cabinet were accustomed to say that he almost 
invariably had some change to make, and that it was usually an 
improvement. He was especially careful in the preparation of procla- 
mations. He began early on his Thanksgiving proclamation, laying 



American History. I43 

great stress upon its importance, and it will be remembered that his 
Thanksgiving proclamations were models of grateful expression. 

In the preparation of his messages he was exceedingly pains- 
taking. His methods varied from year to year. At one time he would 
dictate almost the entire message ; at another he would write it himself 
with a pen, or occasionally with a pencil. Long before the real work of 
writing began he would jot down notes of points to be included, and 
when the time for writing came he had all the facts at hand. 



144 Memorial Volume of 

XIII. 
THE SPANISH WAR AND AFTER. 

Probably no man could have foreseen that William McKinley, 
who was elected as a leader of the peaceful principles of economic 
legislation, and who was all his life a man of peace, would become a 
war President ; but a war President he became, in spite of himself. 

For a long time there had been a controversy over the treatment 
of Cuba by Spain, and during the first meeting of the session of the 
Fifty-fifth Congress it became acute. 

There was a strong popular feeling that the situation in the island 
was becoming intolerable, and the politicians cultivated the idea that 
our government ought to interfere in the interest of the Cuban people. 
The McKinley administration for a time followed the example of its 
predecessor, by seeking to secure an amicable settlement, but the ter- 
rible calamity of February 15, 1898, brought the turning point. 

The Disaster to the "Maine."— The battleship "Maine," while rid- 
ing at anchor in the harbor of Havana, was blown up at night and 256 
of her officers and crew hurled into eternity. The news of the disaster 
horrified the whole civilized world, and there sprang up at once in the 
hearts of the people an intensity of righteous wrath that could not 
be restrained. Mr. McKinley now found himself in a most trying situ- 
ation. On the one hand was the fierce wrath of the American nation 
clamoring for the punishment of the treacherous Spaniards — it being 
almost universally believed that the "Maine" Avas blown up by Spanish 
officers — and on the other was the call equally loud for armed inter- 
vention in Cuba. 

Holding Out Against the Inevitable. — He knew what war meant, 
and, like every other man who has been to war, he regarded it as the 
last resort of the nation, that could never be employed until diplom- 



American History. 145 

acy, arbitration, argument and persuasion had been carried to the 
utmost limit. Day after day he held out against the tumult, but the 
tide ran higher and higher, and at last he ceased to resist it. It is still 
a question with many just how far the war with Spain was forced 
upon the President by a clamorous people and a clamorous Congress. 
Amid the excitement, intensified every hour, and the expressed impa- 
tience with the President's slowness, the situation was summed up by 
a leading paper in the following words: 

" The country has for its President a statesman whose personal 
bravery and warmth of human emotions no one would think of ques- 
tioning, but whose calm determination to exhaust every possibility of 
peace with honor deserves from his country the highest respect. 

"The country has a national legislature patiently and loyally 
heeding the advice of the executive, although burning hot with the 
sentiment that becomes a country like ours, when in sight of a neigh- 
boring people struggling for liberty. 

"The country has an army and navy alive with the national 
spirit, and ready for the performance of any duty that may be pre- 
scribed for them. 

"And it has a people, spreading over forty-five States, whom the 
fearful trial of the 'Maine' disaster has shaken neither in dignity nor 
in understanding, and who in their sorrow over the loss of the 
'Maine' and in their longing to see the United States play its part in 
succoring a maltreated American State, are more truly united and 
more intensely fired with a common patriotism than at any time since 
the making of the Constitution. Xever since the beginning of their 
independence have Americans had occasion to be more proud and 
more hopeful of their country." 

Message on the Cuban Question. — On the eleventh of April the 
President sent to Congress his message on the Cuban question. It 
was a lengthy and strong document, in which he set forth in vigorous 
language the terrible effects of Spanish misrule, recited the particulars 

10 



146 Memorial Volume of 

of the "Maine" disaster and then asked for authority to intervene to 
stop the war in Cuba at his own discretion. With that he turned the 
whole question over to Congress, holding himself ready to obey its 
instruction. 

Grounds of Intervention. — The grounds of intervention were 
thus summed up: 

"First — In the cause of humanity, and to put an end to the barbar- 
ities, starvation and horrible miseries now existing there, and which 
the parties to the conflict are either unable or unwilling to stop or 
mitigate. It is no answer to say this is all in another country, belong- 
ing to another nation, and is therefore none of our business. It is 
specially our duty, for it is right at our door. 

"Second — We owe it to our citizens in Cuba to afford them that 
protection and indemnity for life and property which no government 
there can or will afford, and to that end to terminate the conditions 
that deprive them of legal protection. 

"Third — Right to intervene may be justified l)y the very serious 
injury to tlie conmierce, trade and business of our people, and by the 
wanton destruction of property and devastation of the island. 

"Fourth — And which is of the most importance — The present con- 
dition of affairs in Cuba is a constant menace to our peace, and entails 
upon this government an enormous expense. With such a conflict 
waged for years in an island so near us, and with which our people 
have such trade and business relations — when the lives and liberty of 
our citizens are in constant danger, and their property and them- 
selves ruined — when our trading vessels are liable to seizure and are 
seized at our very door by warships of a foreign nation, the expedi- 
tions of filibustering that we are powerless to prevent altogether, and 
the irritating questions and entanglements thus arising — all these and 
others that I need not mention, with the resulting strained relations, 
are a constant menace to our peace, and compel us to keep on a semi- 
war with a nation with v.hich we are at peace." 



American Histoet. 147 

Previous to this Congress had unanimously placed $50,000,000 
at the disposal of the President to be used in preparing the country 
for the war that was generally believed to be inevitable. The most 
vigorous preparations were set on foot ; recruiting offices were opened, 
nev>- cruisers and ships were bought, and the naval and war offices 
Mere full of activity. In the meanwhile there was a great demonstra- 
tion of patriotism throughout the country 

A few days after the message Congress gave to the President all 
and more than he asked. Instead of granting him authority the reso- 
lution laid a command upon the Executive, who was authorized and 
directed to intervene at once and stop the war with Cuba. Again, 
instead of authorizing intervention for the purpose of establishing a 
stable government capable of maintaining order and observing its 
international obligations, as ]\IcKinley had asked, it directed him to 
establish, by the free action of Cuba, a stable and independent govern- 
ment of its own. 

The Joint Resolution of Congress. — On the twentieth of April 
!McKinley approved the joint resolution of Congress declaring that the 
people of the Island of Cuba are and of right ought to be free and inde- 
pendent, demanding that "the Government of Spain at once relin- 
quish its authority and government in the Island of Cuba and with- 
draw its land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban waters," and 
directing and empowering the President to use the United States 
forces and call out the State militia to such extent as might be neces- 
sa^5^ As was expected, the Spanish Minister at Washington immedi- 
ately asked for his passports; our Minister at iladrid. General Wood- 
ford, was notified that diplomatic relations had terminated, and on the 
twenty-fifth of April the President recommended the passage by 
Congress of a joint resolution declaring war, which was promptly car- 
ried by an all but unanimous vote. 

The War and Its Results. — The war cloud burst, but in less than 
three months the skies were clear again. The result was assured from 



148 Memorial Volume of 

the beginning, Spain being bankrupt, honeycombed with corruption 
and without a friend among the nations, while our own country was 
limitless in its resources and numbered among its friends the might- 
iest of the maritime nations. But in those three months the equi- 
librium of the whole world had been disturbed. 

Dewey's Victory. — War had hardly been declared before Admiral 
Dewey, whose fleet had for some time been in Eastern waters, engaged 
the Spanish fleet lying in the harbor of Manila, the chief port of the 
Philippine Islands, and destroyed it. "This victory led to the occupa- 
tion of the city by our forces, and a popular demand arose that the 
whole group of islands, which now seemed within our grasp, should 
become the possession of the United States. The President hesitated, 
sought to learn public opinion, became convinced that the policy of 
expansion was popular, and finally instructed our Peace Commis- 
sioners to insist upon the cession by Spain of the Philippines, as well 
as Porto Eico, to the United States— Cuba also to be held by our forces 
until a government could be established by its people. The ratifica- 
tion of the treaty was bitterly opposed in the Senate, but it was finally 
carried by little more than the two-thirds vote required. Meanwhile, 
it should be noted, Hawaii had been peaceably annexed to the United 
States." 

In an eloquent speech before the Ohio Society in New York Mr. 
McKinley, in reviewing the results of the Spanish war, said : 

"After thirty-three years of unbroken peace came an unavoidable 
war. Happily, the conclusion was quickly reached, without a suspicion 
of unworthy motive or practice or purpose on our part, and with fade- 
less honor to our arms. I cannot forget the quick response of the peo- 
ple to the country's need and the quarter of a million men who freely 
offered their lives to their country's service. It was an impressive spec- 
tacle of national strength. It demonstrated our mighty reserve power 
and taught us that large standing armies are unnecessary when every 
citizen is a 'minute man' ready to join the ranks for national defence. 



American History. 149 

"Out of these recent events have come to the United States grave 
trials and responsibilities. As it was the nation's war, so are its results 
the nation's problems. Its solution rests upon us all. It is too serious 
to stifle. It is too earnest for repose. Xo phrase or catchword can con- 
ceal the sacred obligation it involves. !N"o use of epithets, no aspersion 
of motive by those who differ will contribute to that sober judgment so 
essential to right conclusions. 

"No political outcry can abrogate our treaty of peace with 
Spain or absolve us from its solemn engagements. It is the people's 
question and will be until its determination is written out in their 
enlightened verdict. We must choose between manly doing and base 
desertion. It will never be the latter. It must be soberly settled 
in justice and good conscience, and it will be. Eighteousness which 
exalteth a nation must control in its solution. 

Imperialism Denounced. — "There can be no imperialism. Those 
who fear it are against it. Those who have faith in the Kepublic are 
against it. So that there is universal abhorrence for it and unanimous 
opposition to it. Our only difference is that those who do not agree 
with us have no confidence in the virtue or capacity or high purpose or 
good faith of this free people as a civilizing agency, while we believe 
that the century of free government which the American people have 
enjoyed has not rendered them irresolute and faithless, but has fitted 
them for the great task of lifting up and assisting to better condition 
and larger liberty those distant people who have through the issue of 
battle become our wards. 

"Let us fear not. There is no occasion for faint hearts, no excuse 
for regrets. Nations do not grow in strength and the cause of liberty 
and law by the doing of easy things. The harder the task the greater 
will be the result, the benefit and the honor. To doubt our power to 
accomplish it is to lose faith in the soundness and strength of our 
popular institutions. The liberators will never become the oppressors. 
A self-governed people will never permit despotism in any government 
which they foster and defend. 



150 Memorial Volume of 

"Gentlemen, we have the new care and cannot shift it. And, 
breaking up the camp of ease and isolation, let us bravely and hope- 
fully and soberly continue the march of faithful service and falter not 
until the work is done. It is not possible that seventy-five millions of 
American freemen are unable to establish liberty and justice and good 
government in our new possessions. The burden is our opportunity. 
The opportunity is greater than the burden. May God give us strength 
to bear the one and wisdom so to embrace the other as to carry to our 
distant acquisitions the guarantees of life, liberty and the pursuit of 
happiness." 

Later, in his letter accepting the nomination of his party for a 
second term Mr. McKinley said : 

"We have been in possession of Cuba since the first of January, 
1899. We have restored order and established domestic tranquillity. 
We have fed the starving, clothed the naked, and ministered to the 
sick. We have improved the sanitary condition of the island. We have 
stimulated industry, introduced public education, and taken a full 
and comprehensive enumeration of the inhabitants. The qualification 
of electors has been settled, and under it officers have been chosen for 
all the municipalities of Cuba. These local governments are now in 
operation, administered by the people. 

"An election has been ordered to be held on the fifteenth of Sep- 
tember, under a fair election law already tried in the municipal elec- 
tions, to choose members of a constitutional convention, and the con- 
vention, by the same order, is to assemble on the first Monday of 
November to framfe a constitution upon which an independent govern- 
ment for the island will rest. All this is a long step in the fulfillment 
of our sacred guarantee to the people of Cuba. 

"We hold Porto Eico by the same title as the Philippines. The 
treaty of peace which ceded us the one conveyed to us the other. Con- 
gress has given to this island a government in which the inhabitants 
participate, elect their own legislature, enact their own local laws, 



American History. 151 

provide their own system of taxation, and in these respects have the 
same power and privileges enjoyed by other territories belonging to the 
United States, and a much larger measure of self-government than was 
given to the inhabitants of Louisiana under Jefferson. A district 
court of the United States for Porto Eico has been established and 
local courts have been inaugurated, all of which are in operation. The 
generous treatment of the Porto Eicans accords with the most liberal 
thought of our own country, and encourages the best aspirations of 
the people of the island. 

'^hile they do not have instant free commercial intercourse with 
the United States, Congress complied with my recommendation by 
removing, on May 1, eighty-five per cent of the duties and providing 
for the removal of the remaining fifteen per cent on the first of March, 
1902, or earlier if the Legislature of Porto Eico shall provide local 
revenues for the expenses of conducting the government. During this 
intermediate period Porto Eican products coming into the United 
States pay a tariff of fifteen per cent of the rates under the Dingley 
act, and our goods going to Porto Eico pay a like rate. The duties 
thus paid and collected both in Porto Eico and the United States are 
paid to the government of Porto Eico, and no part thereof is taken by 
the national government. All of the duties from Xovember 1, 1898, 
to June 30, 1900, aggregating the sum of $2,250,523.21, paid at the 
Custom House in the United States upon Porto Eican products, under 
the laws existing prior to the above-mentioned act of Congress, have 
gone into the treasury of Porto Eico to relieve the destitute and for 
schools and other public purposes. In addition to this we have made 
expenditures for relief, education and improvement." 

Speaking of the Filipinos the President said : "Every effort has 
been directed to their peace and prosperity, their advancement and 
well-being, not for our aggrandizement nor for pride of might, not for 
trade or commerce, not for exploitation, but for humanity and civiliza- 
tion, and for the protection of the vast majority of the population, who 



153' Memorial Volume of 

■welcome our sovereignty against the designing minority whose first 
demand after the surrender of Manila by the Spanish army was to 
enter the city, that they might loot it and destroy those not in sj^m- 
pathy with their selfish and treacherous designs. 

'^Yould not our adversaries have sent Dewey's fleet to i\Ianila to 
capture and destroy the Spanish sea power there, or, dispatching it 
there, would they have withdrawn it after the destruction of the 
Spanish fleet ; and if the latter, whither would they have directed it to 
sail ? Where could it have gone ? What port in the Orient was opened 
to it ? Do our adversaries condemn the expedition under the command 
of General Merritt to strengthen Dewey in the distant ocean and assist 
in our triumph over Spain, with which nation we were at war? Was 
it not our highest duty to strike Spain at every vulnerable point, that 
the war might be successfully concluded at the earliest practical 
.moment ? 

"And was it not our duty to protect the lives and property of those 
who came within our control by the fortunes of war ? Could we have 
come away at any time between May 1, 1898, and the conclusion of 
peace without a stain upon our good name ? Could we have come away 
without dishonor at any time after the ratification of the peace treaty 
by the Senate of the United States ? 

"There has been no time since the destruction of the enemy's 
fleet when we could or should have left the Philippine archipelago. 
After the treaty of peace was ratified, no power but Congress could sur- 
render our sovereignty or alienate a foot of the territory thus acquired. 
The Congress has not seen fit to do one or the other, and the Presi- 
dent had no authority to do either if he had been so inclined, which 
he was not. So long as the sovereignity remains in us it is the 
duty of the executive, whoever he may be, to uphold that sovereignty, 
and if it be attacked to suppress its assailants. Would our political 
adversaries do less ? 

**With all the exaggerated phrase-making of this electoral contest 



American History. I53 

we are in danger of being diverted from the real contention. We are 
in agreement with all of those who supported the war with Spain, and 
also with those who counseled the ratification of the treaty of peace. 
Upon these two great essential steps there can be no issue, and out of 
these came all of our responsibilities. If others would shirk the obli- 
gations imposed by the war and the treaty, we must decline to act 
further with them, and here the issue was made. 

"It is our purpose to establish in the Philippines a government 
suitable to the wants and conditions of the inhabitants and to prepare 
them for self-government, and to give them self-government when they 
are ready for it and as rapidly as they are ready for it. That I am 
aiming to do under my constitutional authority, and will continue to 
do until Congress shall determine the political status of the inhabitants 
of the archipelago. 

"Are our ojiponents against the treaty? If so they must be 
reminded that it could not have been ratified in the Senate but for 
their assistance. The Senate which ratified the treaty and the Congress 
which added its sanction by a large appropriation comprised Senators 
and Representatives of the people of all parties. 

"Would our opponents surrender to the insurgents, abandon our 
sovereignty or cede it to them ? If that be not their purpose, then it 
should promptly be disclaimed, for only evil can result from the hopes 
raised by our opponents in the minds of the Filipinos, that with their 
success at the polls in ^N'ovember there will be a withdrawal of our 
army and of American sovereignty over the archipelago ; the complete 
independence of the Tagalog people recognized, and the powers of 
government over all the other people of the archipelago conferred upon 
the Tagalog leaders. 

"There were those who, two years ago, were rushing us on to war 
with Spain, who are unwilling now to accept its clear consequence, 
as there are those among us who advocated the ratification of the treaty 
of peace, but now protest against its obligations. Nations which go to 



154 Memorial VoldjVie of 

war must be prepared to accept its resultant obligations, and when they 
make treaties must keep them. 

"Those who profess to distrust the liberal and honorable purposes 
of the administration in its treatment of the Philippines are not jus- 
tified. Imperialism has no place in its creed or conduct. Freedom 
is a rock upon which the Eepublican party was builded, and now rests. 
Liberty is the great Eepublican doctrine for which the people went to 
war, and for which a million lives were offered and billions of dollars 
were expended to make it a lawful legacy of all, without the consent of 
master or slave. 

"If our opponents would only practice as well as preach the doc- 
trines of Abraham Lincoln, there would be no fear for the safety of 
our institutions at home or their rightful influence in any territory 
over which our flag floats. Empire has been expelled from Porto Eico 
and the Philippines by American freemen. The flag of the Eepublic 
now floats over these islands as an emblem of rightful sovereignty. 
Will the Eepublic stay and dispense to their inhabitants the blessing of 
liberty, education and free institutions, or steal away, leaving them 
to anarchy and imperialism ? 

"The American question is between duty and desertion — the 
American verdict will be for duty and against desertion; for the 
Eepublic, against both anarcby and imperialism." 



American History. 155 

XIV. 
A SECOND TERM. 

As the end of his term approached it came to be felt throughout 
the country that his renomination was a foregone conclusion. It was 
universally conceded that he was the best exponent of the policies 
of the Eepublican party, and the fact that his party was able to secure 
a majority in the House in 1898 was regarded as a strong vote of con- [ 
fidence in his administration. It was natural to presume that he would 
be given the second renomination without hesitation. 

When the Eepublican Xational Convention met in Philadelphia 
in June, 1900, no other man was seriously mentioned as a candidate. 
It was in many respects a remarkable convention. There were no 
feuds to settle, no factions, no sectional feeling to deal with, and no 
dark horses. The only matter for consideration was whether Mr. 
McKinley should be renominated on his record and for his record. 
On this point it was soon realized that his party was thoroughly united 
and he was given the honor of a nomination by acclamation. Gov- 
ernor Eoosevelt, of Xew York, a strong running mate, was nominated 
for Tice-President. 

Looking Backv7ard. — In response to the committee which notified 
him of his nomination he said : 

"On a like occasion four years ago I said : 'The party that sup- 
plied by legislation the vast revenues for the conduct of our greatest 
war, that promptly restored the credit of the country at its close, that 
from its abundant revenues paid off a large share of the debt incurred 
by this war, and that resumed specie payments and placed our paper 
currency upon a sound and enduring basis can bo safely trusted to 
preserve both our credit and currency with honor, stability and 
inviolability. The American people hold the financial honor of our 



156 Memorial Volume of 

government as sacred as our flag, and can be relied upon to guard it 
with the same sleepless vigilance. They hold its preservation above 
party fealty, and have often demonstrated that party ties avail nothing 
when the spotless credit of our country is threatened. 

" The dollar paid to the farmer, the wage-earner and the pen- 
sioner must continue forever equal in purchasing and debt-paying 
power to the dollar paid to any government creditor. 

" 'Our industrial supremacy, our productive capacity, our busi- 
ness and commercial prosperity, our labor and its rewards, our national 
credit and currency, our proud financial honor and our splendid free 
citizenship, the birthright of every American, are all involved in the 
pending campaign, and thus every home in the land is directly and 
intimately connected with their proper settlement. 

" 'Our domestic trade must be won back, and our idle working 
people employed in gainful occupations at American wages. Our home 
market must be restored to its proud rank of first in the world, and our 
foreign trade, so precipitately cut off by adverse national legislation, 
reopened on fair and equitable terms for our surplus agriculture and 
manufacturing products. 

" 'Public confidence must be resumed, and the skill, energy and 
the capital of our country find ample employment at home. The 
Government of the United States must raise money enough to meet 
both its current expenses and increasing needs. Its revenues should 
be so raised as to protect the material interests of our people, with 
the lightest possible drain upon their resources and maintaining that 
high standard of civilization which has distinguished our country 
for more than a century of its existence. 

" 'The national credit, which has thus far fortunately resisted 
every assault upon it, must and will be upheld and strengthened. 
If sufficient revenues are provided for the support of the government 
there will be no necessity for borrowing money and increasing the 
public debt/ 



American History. 157 

Kept the Pledges. — "Three and one half years of legislation and 
administration have been concluded since these words were spoken. 
Have those to whom was confided the direction of the government 
kept their pledges? The record is made up. The people are not 
unfamiliar M'ith what has been accomplished. The gold standard 
has been reaffirmed and strengthened. The endless chain has been 
broken, and the drain upon our gold reserve no longer frets us. The 
credit of the country has been advanced to the highest place among 
all nations. 

'•We are refunding our bonded debt, bearing three and four and 
five per cent interest, at two per cent, a lower rate than that of any 
other country, and already more than three hundred millions have 
been so funded, with a gain to the government of many millions of 
dollars. Instead of 16 to 1, for which our opponents contended four 
years ago, legislation has been enacted which, while utilizing all 
forms of our money, secures one fixed value for every dollar, and that 
the best known to the civilized world. 

"A tariff which protects American labor and industrv' and provides 
ample revenues has been written in public law. We have lower interest 
and higher wages, more money and fewer mortgages. The world's 
markets have been opened to American products, which go now where 
they have never gone before. We have passed from a bond-issuing 
to a bond-paying nation; from a nation of borrowers to a nation of 
lenders; from a deficiency in revenue to a surplus; from fear to 
confidence; from enforced idleness to profitable emplojTnent. The 
public faith has been upheld ; public order has been maintained. We 
have prosperity at home and prestige abroad. 

'•'Unfortunately, the threat of 1896 has just been renewed by the 
allied parties without abatement or modification. The gold bill has 
been denounced and its repeal demanded. The menace of 16 to 1, 
therefore, still hangs over us with all its dire consequences to credit 
and confidence, to business and industrv. The enemies of sound 



158 Memorial Volume of 

currency are rallying their scattered forces. The people must once 
more unite and overcome the advocates of repudiation, and must not 
relax their energy until the battle for public honor and honest money 
shall again triumph. 

The Tariff. — "A Congress which will sustain and, if need be, 
strengthen the present law can prevent a financial catastrophe which 
every lover of the Eepublic is interested to avert. 

"Not satisfied with assaulting the currency and credit of the gov- 
ernment, our political adversaries condemn the tariff law enacted at 
the extra session of Congress in 1897, known as the Dingley Act, 
passed in obedience to the will of the people, expressed at the election 
in the preceding jSTovember, a law which at once stimulated our 
industries, opened the idle factories and mines and gave to the laborer 
and to the farmer fair returns for their toil and investment. Shall 
we go back to a tariff which brings deficiency in our revenues and 
destruction to our industrial enterprises? 

"Faithful to its pledges in these internal affairs, how has the gov- 
ernment discharged its international duties? 

"Our platform of 1896 declared 'the Hawaiian Islands should be 
controlled by the United States, and no foreign power should be 
permitted to interfere with them.' 

"This purpose has been fully accomplished by annexation, and 
delegates from those beautiful islands have participated in the con- 
vention for which you speak to-day. In the great conference of 
nations at The Hague we reaffirmed before the world the Monroe 
Doctrine and our adherence to it and our determination not to par- 
ticipate in the complications of Europe. "We have happily ended the 
European alliance in Samoa, securing to ourselves one of the most 
valuable harbors in the Pacific Ocean, while the open door in China 
gives to us fair and equal competition in the vast trade of the Orient. 
Some things have happened which were not promised, nor even fore- 
seen, and our purposes in relation to them must not be left in doubt. 



American History. 159 

Our Island Possessions. — "A just war has been waged for human- 
ity, and with it have come new problems and responsibilities. Spain 
has been ejected from the Western Hemisphere and our flag floats 
over her fornur territory. Cuba has been liberated and our guarantees 
to her people will be sacredly executed. A beneficent government 
has been provided for Porto Rico. The Philippines are ours and 
American authority must be supreme throughout the archipelago 
There will be amnesty broad and liberal, but no abatement of our 
rights, no abandonment of our duty. There must be no scuttle policy. 

"We will fulfill in the Philippines the obligations imposed by the 
triumphs of our arms and by the treaty of peace ; by international law ; 
by the nation's sense of honor, and, more than all, by the rights, 
interests and conditions of the Philippine people themselves. Xo out- 
side interference blocks the wa}' to peace and a stable government. 
The obstructionists are here, not elsewhere. They may postpone, 
but they cannot defeat the realization of the high purposes of this 
nation to restore order to the islands and to establish a just and 
generous government, in which the inhabitants shall have the largest 
participation for which they are capable. 

"The organized forces which have been misled into rebellion 
have been dispersed by our faithful soldiers and sailors, and the 
people of the islands, delivered from anarchy, pillage and oppression, 
recognize American sovereignty as the symbol and pledge of peace, 
justice, law, religious freedom, education, the security of life and 
property, and the welfare and prosperity of their several communities. 

Principle Reasserted. — "We reassert the early principle of the 
Republican party, sustained by unbroken judicial precedents, that 
the representatives of the people in Congress assembled have full 
legislative power over territory belonging to the United States, sub- 
ject to the fundamental safeguards of liberty, justice and personal 
rights, and are vested with ample authority to act 'for the highest 
interests of our nation and the people entrusted to its care.' The doc- 



160 Memorial Volume of 

trine, first proclaimed in the cause of freedom, will never be used as 
a weapon for oppression. I am glad to be assured b}' you that what 
we have done in the Far East has the approval of the country. 

''The sudden and terrible crisis in China calls for the gravest 
consideration, and you will not expect from me now any further 
expression than to say that my best efforts shall be given to the 
immediate purpose of protecting the lives of our citizens who are in 
peril, with the ultimate object of the peace and welfare of China, the 
safeguarding of all our treaty rights, and the maintenance of those 
principles of impartial intercourse to which the civilized world is 
pledged. I cannot conclude without congratulating my countrymen 
upon the strong national sentiment which finds expression in every 
part of our common country and the increased respect with which 
the American name is greeted throughout the world. 

Moving in Untried Paths. — ''We have been moving in untried 
paths, but our steps have been guided by honor and duty. There will 
be no turning aside, no wavering, no retreat. Xo blow has been 
struck except for liberty and humanity, and none will be. We will 
perform without fear every national and international obligation." 

In his letter of acceptance which shortly followed, and from 
which I have already quoted, the President made a most gratifying 
report of what had been accomplished during his administration, 
and briefly outlined the work that remained to be done. Congress had 
at last given Alaska a territorial government, for which it had waited 
more than a quarter of a century; had established a representative 
government in Hawaii; had enacted bills for the most liberal treat- 
ment of the pensioners and their widows; had revived the free home- 
stead policy. In its great financial law it provided for the establish- 
ment of banks of issue with a capital of $25,000 for the benefit of 
villages and rural communities, and bringing the opportunity for 
profitable business in banking within the reach of moderate capital. 
Many, he said, are already availing themselves of this privilege. 



American History. 161 

Surplus Revenues. — ''During iho past year more than nineteen 
millions of TTnited States bonds Lave been paid from the surplus rev- 
enues of the Treasur}", and in addition twenty-five millions of 2 per 
cents matured, called by the government, are in process of payment. 
Pacific railroad bonds, issued by the government in aid of the roads 
in the sum of nearly forty-four million dollars, have been paid since 
December 31, 189 T. The Treasury balance is in satisfactory condi- 
tion, showing on September 1, $135,119,000, in addition to the 
$150,000,000 gold reserve held in the Treasury. The government's 
relations with the Pacific railroads have been substantially closed, $121, 
431,000 being received from these roads, the greater part in cash and 
the remainder with ample securities for payments deferred. 

Volume of Currency. — "Instead of diminishing, as was predicted 
four years ago, the volume of our currency is greater per capita than 
it has ever been. It was $21.10 in 1896. It has increased to $26.50 
on July 1, 1900, and $26.85 on September 1, 1900. Our total money 
on July 1, 1896, was $1,506,431,966; on July 1, 1900, it was $2,062,- 
425,490, and $'2,096,683,042 on September 1, 1900. 

"Our industrial and agricultural conditions are more promising 
tlian they have been for many years ; j^robably more so than they have 
ever been. Prosperity abounds everywhere throughout the Eepublic. 
I rejoice that the Southern as well as the Xorthern States are enjoying 
a full share of these improved national conditions, and that all are 
contributing so largely to our remarkable industrial development. 
The money lender receives lower rewards for his capital than if it 
were invested in active business. The rates of interest are lower than 
they have ever been in this country, while those things which are pro- 
duced on the farm and in the workshop and the labor producing them 
have advanced in value. 

Foreign Trade. — "Our foreign trade shows a satisfactory- and 
increasing growth. The amount of our exports for the year 1900 
over those of the exceptionally prosperous year of 1899 was about half 
li 



163 Memorial Tolume of 

a million dollars for every clay of the year, and these sums have gone 
into the homes and enterprises of the people. There has been an 
increase of over $50,000,000 in the exports of agricultural products; 
$92,692,220 in manufactures, and in the products of the mines of over 
$10,000,000. Our trade balances cannot fail to give satisfaction to 
the people of the country. In 1898 we sold abroad $615,432,676 of 
products more than we bought abroad; in 1899, $529,874,813, and in 
1900, $544,471,701, making, during the three years, a total balance in 
our favor of $1,689,779,190— nearly five times the balance of trade 
in our favor for the whole period of 108 years from 1790 to June 30, 
1897, inclusive. 

Gold Stock. — "Four hundred and thirty-six million dollars of 
gold have been added to the gold stock of the United States since 
July 1, 1896. The law of March 14, 1900, authorized the refunding 
into 2 per cent bonds of that part of the public debt represented by 
the 3 per cents, due in 1908; the 4 per cents, due in 1907, and the 5 
per cents, due in 1904, aggregating $840,000,000. More than one- 
third of the sum of these bonds was refunded in the first three 
months after the passage of the act, and on September 1 the sum had 
been increased more than $33,000,000, making in all $330,578,050, 
resulting in a net saving of over $8,379,520. 

"The ordinary receipts of the government for the fiscal year 1900 
were $79,827,060 in excess of its expenditures. 

Receipts. — "While our receipts both from customs and internal 
revenue have been greatly increased, our expenditures have been 
decreasing. Civil and miscellaneous expenses for the fiscal year ending 
June 30, 1900, were nearly $14,000,000 less than in 1899, while on the 
war account there is a decrease of more than $95,000,000. There 
were required $8,000,000 less to support the navy this year than last, 
and the expenditures on account of Indians were nearly two and 
three-quarters million dollars less than in 1899. 

"The only two items of increase in the public expenses of 1890 



American History, 163 

over 1899 are for pensions and interest on the public debt. For 1890 
we expended for pensions $139,394,929, and for the fiscal year 1900 
our payments on this account amounted to $140,877,316. The net 
increase of interest on the public debt of 1900 over 1899, required by 
the war loan, was $263,408.25. While Congress authorized the gov- 
ernment to make a war loan of $400,000,000 at the beginning of the 
war with Spain, only $200,000,000 of bonds were issued, bearing 3 
per cent interest, which were promptly and patriotically taken by our 
citizens. 

Reduction of Taxes. — "Unless something unforeseen occurs to 
reduce our revenue or increase our expenditures, the Congress at its 
next session should reduce taxation very materially. 

"Five years ago we were selling government bonds bearing as 
high as 5 per cent interest. N'o-w we are redeeming them with a bond 
at par, bearing 2 per cent interest. We are selling our surplus 
products and lending our surplus money to Europe. One result of 
our selling to other nations so much more than we have bought from 
them during the past three years is a radical improvement of our 
financial relations. The great amounts of capital which have been 
borrowed of Europe for our rapid, material development have remained 
a constant drain upon our resources for interest and dividends, and 
made our money markets liable to constant disturbances by calls for 
payment or heavy sales of our securities whenever moneyed stringency 
or panic occurred abroad. We have now been paying these debts and 
bringing home many of our securities and establishing countervailing 
credits abroad b}^ our loans, and placing ourselves upon a sure founda- 
tion of financial independence. 

The Boer War. — "In the unfortunate contest betw^een Great 
Britain and the Boer states of South Africa the United States bas 
maintained an attitude of neutrality, in accordance with its well- 
known traditional policy. It did not hesitate, however, when 
requested by the governments of the South African Eepublics to exer- 



164 Memorial Volume op 

cise its good offices for a cessation of hostilities. It is to be observed 
that, while the South African Republics made like requests of other 
powers, the United States is the only one which complied. The 
British Government declined to accept the intervention of any power. 

Extending Foreign Commerce. — "Ninety-one per cent of our 
exports and imports are now carried by foreign ships. For ocean 
transportation we pay annually to foreign ship owners over $165,- 
000,000. We ought to own the ships for our carrying trade with the 
world, and we ought to build them in American shipyards and man 
them with American sailors. Our own citizens should receive the 
transportation charges now paid to foreigners. I have called the 
attention of Congress to this subject in my several annual messages. 
In that of December 6, 1897, I said: 

" 'Most desirable from every standpoint of national interest and 
patriotism is the effort to extend our foreign commerce. To this end 
our merchant marine should be improved and enlarged. We should do 
our full share of the carrying trade of the world. We do not do it 
now. We should be the laggard no longer.' 

Progress on the Seas. — "In my message of December 5, 1899, 
I said: 

" 'Our national development will be one-sided and unsatisfactory 
so long as the remarkable growth of our inland industries remains 
unaccompanied by progress on the seas. There is no lack of consti- 
tutional authority for legislation which shall give to the country mari- 
time strength commensurate with its industrial achievements and with 
its rank among the nations of the earth. 

" 'The past year has recorded exceptional activity in our ship- 
yards, and the promises of continued prosperity in shipbuilding are 
abundant. Advanced legislation for the protection of our seamen 
has been enacted. Our coast trade, under regulations wisely framed 
at the beginning of the government and since, shows results for the 
last fiscal year unequaled in our records or those of any other power. 



American History. 165 

We shall fail to realize our opportunities, however, if we complacently 
regard only matters at home and blind ourselves to the necessity of 
securing our share in the valuable carrying trade of the world/ 

"I now reiterate these views. 

A Maritime Canal. — "A subject of immediate importance to our 
country is the completion of a great waterway between the Atlantic 
and Pacific. The construction of a maritime canal is now more than 
ever indispensable to that intimate and ready communication between 
our Eastern and Western seaports demanded by the annexation of the 
Hawaiian Islands and the expansion of our influence and trade in 
the Pacific. 

"Our national policy more imperatively than ever calls for its 
completion and control by this government; and it is believed that 
the next session of Congress, after receiving the full report of the com- 
mission appointed under the act approved March 3, 1899, will make 
provisions for the sure accomplishment of this great work. 

Monopolies. — "Combinations of capital which control the market 
in commodities necessary to the general use of the people, by suppress- 
ing natural and ordinary competition, thus enhancing prices to the 
general consumer, are obnoxious to the common law and the pul)lic 
welfare. They are dangerous conspiracies against the public good, 
and should be made the subject of prohibitory or penal legislation. 
Publicity will be a helpful influence to check this evil. TJniformit}'' 
of legislation in the several States should be secured. Discrimina- 
tion between what is injurious and what is useful and necessary in 
business operations is essential to the wise and effective treatment of 
this subject. Honest co-operation of capital is necessary to meet new 
business conditions and extend our rapidly increasing foreign trade, 
but conspiracies and combinations intended to restrict business, create 
monopolies and control prices should be effectively restrained. 

Encourag-ing Labor. — "The best service which can be rendered 
to labor is to afford it an opportunity for steady and remunerative 



166 Memorial Volume of 

employment, and give it every encouragement for advancement. The 
policy that subserves this end is the true American policy. The last 
three years have been more satisfactory to American workingmen 
than many preceding years. Any change of the present industrial 
or financial policy of the government would be disastrous to their 
highest interests. With prosperity at home and an increasing foreign 
market for American products, employment should continue to wait 
upon labor, and with the present gold standard the workingman is 
secured against payments for his labor in a depreciated currency. For 
labor, a short day is better than a short dollar ; one will lighten the 
burdens, the other lessen the rewards of toil. The one will promote 
contentment and independence, the other penury and want. The wages 
of labor should be adequate to keep the home in comfort, educate the 
children, and, with thrift and economy, lay something by for the 
days of infirmity and old age." 

Mr. Bryan was again the candidate of the Democratic party, and 
he had lost little if any of his wonderful popularity. But he was at 
the disadvantage of opposing a man with a record which had met the 
approval of a great majority of the American people. The result was 
that in November Mr. McKinley was elected to a second term by the 
largest popular vote ever given to any candidate. 



American History. 167 

XV. 

HIS GREATEST SERVICE TO THE NATION. 

There can hardly be a question but that Mr, MeKinley's greatest 
service to America, certainly the service which will live longest in the 
memory of men, was the work which he did towards cementing the 
sections together. He made the nation one. 

His Dearest Wish. — "At the Peace Jubilee at Philadelphia," 
said Governor Tyler, of Virginia, in his eloquent tribute on the day of 
the funeral, "I stood by his side as the blue-coated veterans shook his 
hand. He turned to me with tears in his eyes and said: 'Now, 
Governor, if we only had a gray-coated Confederate by the side of each 
one of these the day would be rounded and my happiness complete.' 

"I looked him straight in the face and said : 'Do you mean that, 
Mr. President?' 

" 'Indeed I do,' answered Mr. McKinley, and he added : 'To see 
the entire abolition of sectional lines is the dearest wish I have.' 

"I will carry that message to my people," said the Governor, and 
Mr. McKinley with emphasis bade him assure Virginia that the ban- 
ishment of all sectional feeling was a labor to which he would give his 
best efforts, and which accomplished would bring him great personal 
happiness. 

Making the nation one was the dominant note of all his public 
utterances, and the directing impulse of many of his official acts. 
Before he was nominated he told his intimate friends of his fond 
ambition to be instrumental in binding the North and South in closer 
ties of fellowship, and it is undoubtedly true that a united country 
was the greatest aspiration of his life. 

"To realize his ambition," says a recent writer, "the President 
was happily aided at an opportune moment in our national existence by 



168 Memorial Yoluime of 

the fortunes of war — a war resulting from intervention in behalf of 
an oppressed people under the yoke of foreign despotism in our own 
hemisphere. The grizzled warriors of the blue and the gray sprang 
to arms under the same flag to lead the young volunteers of the North 
and South against a common foe. The spectacle was one of the most 
inspiring in history. Sectional rancor was buried with brave hearts in 
the soil of Santiago and El Caney." 

A Union in Reality. — Before McKinley we had the Union in 
name; to-day we have it in reality. But as the writer whom I have 
just quoted says : "The bugle call to arms was not to be the one uni- 
fying influence in drawing the two sections together. No man before 
McKinley ever preached so eloquently and earnestly the doctrine of 
commercial and industrial unity. His voice was lifted for that Union 
that recognizes a common destiny for all sections of the Eepublic. 
He was the South's champion, the advocate of her peerless resources. 
He believed in the industrial future of the South. For this the South 
loved him." 

Mr. Harry S. Edwards, in the McKinley memorial service, held in 
Macon, Ga., said : 

The Right Man at the Right Moment. — "To every man is given a 
mission, be he ever so humble ; else were life but a purposeless expres- 
sion of that power which created it. Looking backward through the 
long perspectives we see dimly how civilization has developed, how the 
spark of liberty has been guarded and cherished. We see the giant 
epoch makers of our race struggling in the mists and around them the 
dumb, formless masses of men surging back and forth in an endless 
struggle. We catch the faint flash of light where the jewel in the 
heavenly javelin falls as the angels of God hurl it forward to the new 
boundaries of freedom. The light grows ! that which was a fitful 
gleam becomes a star, a planet, a sun ablaze in the noonday of our cen- 
tury. With the light came the tumult; and the fight raged about us 
as it did about our fathers in the ages past; as it will about the 



American History. 169 

unborn millions when we lay down our weapons and sink into the 
shadow. Alas, but the sun of liberty looked down, when the smoke 
lifted, on a saddened people, and the nation writhed in agony as the 
new epoch struggled to the light. William McKinley found the nation's 
wounds yet bleeding; the nation's heart charged with bitterness; sec- 
tion arrayed against section, brother against brother. He came with 
but half the confidence of one section to meet the almost unbroken 
distrust of another; but he came, at the right moment as the right 
man always comes, as he always will come to that people chosen of God 
to carry the standard of liberty and execute His will. 

His Mission of Peace.— ''As he walked among us, frank, free, 
trusting and unguarded, with a plea in his voice, honesty in his every 
lineament, and a manly assurance of friendship in the clasp of his 
hand, his mission unfolded to the knowledge of men. It was a mission 
of peace. And he won. 

"How well William McKinley understood the Southern heart we 
know now. Why, look you, fellow citizens, did he ever ask a Southern 
man to deny his convictions, to recede one step from the principles 
that governed him? When delay of the first act for the delivery of 
the millions that sufi'ered under a vicious Old World system became 
no longer possible, when the cry of humanity could no longer be disre- 
garded by the brave and free, and he laid hand on the sword, did he 
question the Southern veteran or the South's superb youth as to the 
flag? Did he question the loyalty of Fitzhugh Lee? Did he put a 
watch on Brumby, on Bagley, on Winship, on Hobson, or, put other 
men in their places to make history ? AVhen he came into this city and 
there was placed on his breast a memorial of the cause he had fought 
did he receive it with a frown ? What was it he said in Atlanta, when in 
liis grand appeal for peace he reached the Confederate dead ? Listen : 

" 'The time has now come in the evolution of sentiment and feeling 
under the providence of God when in the spirit of fraternity we should 
share with you in the care of the graves of the Confederate soldiers. 



170 Memorial Volume of 

" 'The cordial feeling now happily existing between the North and 
the South prompts this gracious act, and if it needs further justifica- 
tion, it is found in the gallant loyalty to the Union and the Flag, so 
conspicuously shown in the year just passed by the sons and grand- 
sons of these heroic dead.' 

He Knew the South. — "Oh, fellow citizens, he knew you better 
than at first you Imew him. He knew you better than you knew your- 
selves. His was the genius of intuition. He appealed with confidence to 
the great, warm, generous heart of the South, to that love of country, 
that love of home, that love of religion, which find their asylum here 
to-day as they found it through the century past. He found where 
your heartstrings were, and touching them with unerring skill, whis- 
pered 'America' in the sacred chambers of your life. He won you in 
spite of politics by the beaut}' of his superb faith in you and in the 
ideals you worship. Carrying the sword after a four years' struggle, 
he broke down the defences of the land; carrying the olive branch, 
he stormed and won your hearts in a few short days. It was his 
supreme triumph. It was the South's supreme tribute. No man 
ever won a greater victory over a people than the victory he has won 
over you; no victory is destined for a harvest so grand. For where 
he found distrust, he left faith ; where he found strife he left peace ; 
where he found bitterness he left love; and where he found an open 
wound he poured his dissolving life as a precious ointment to soothe 
and to heal. 

"I speak of his mission as executed; it is not given to man to inter- 
pret the ways of God, but surely I may take the words of our dying 
friend as carrying with them something of that light which the soul 
gains when it poises for flight where the sunset of life mingles with 
the dawn of eternity's one matchless day. What was God's way ? To 
whom these strange words, following no utterance save farewell ? It 
seems to me that we may read in them only the realization of a soul 
that its mission was ended under the decree of the power which 



American History. 171 

directed it. It seems to me that, as it trembled in the white radiance 
of its Creator's presence, it turned a moment, still faithful, still 
thoughtful of the sorrowing millions, in loving explanation. This 
ended, in loving submission, in words that can never perish from the 
American heart, he greeted his great Commander. My friends, if there 
is an3^thing in the faith which sustains the human race in this twentieth 
century, and I am not here to doubt it, William McKinley died with 
one hand clasped in ours and the other in the hand of God ! There 
was for him no shadow, no valley of death. He died on the summit 
of the mountain, as a grand day dies, beyond him the radiant gates 
of heaven, around him the friendly stars." 

His Eecognition of Southern Patriotism. — The Washington Post 
has said that Mr. McKinley's attitude toward the South when the 
war with Spain broke out, in 1898, infused into this purely abstract 
and intellectual admiration the ingredient of enthusiasm. "Misunder- 
stood for more than thirty years; misrepresented persistently by the 
professional ex-Confederates, with their noisy announcement of a 
reconciliation which had long been consummated in the hearts of all 
serious men; anxious for an opportunity to demonstrate the loyalty 
they felt in every fibre, they hailed Mr. McKinley's recognition of their 
genuine patriotism with a gratitude which soon deepened into lasting 
and sincere affection. How they rallied to the nation's flag is a matter 
of common knowledge and need not be discussed at this time. The 
demonstration was spontaneous and, therefore, splendidly impressive. 
But Southern men will never forget that Mr. McKinley understood 
them, and to properly appraise their grief over his tragic and untimely 
death one must consider the effect of that magnanimous act upon a sen- 
sitive and proud people. Theirs is a sorrow acute as it is profound. The 
country may safely assume that they mean all and more than they 
profess." 

Before his first term had come to a close it was realized that he 
was indeed the President of a united country. The influence of his 



173 Memorial Volume of 

example, the power of his position, and all the force of his ability, 
■were constantly given to this end. McKinley's gratification at the 
fulfillment of so noble an inspiration found voice at Atlanta in these 
words : 

"Reunited — one country again and one country forever! Pro- 
claim if from the press and pulpit; teach it in the schools; write it 
across the skies ! The world sees and feels it ; it cheers every heart 
Xorth and South, and brightens the life of every American 
home ! Let nothing ever strain it again ! At peace with all the world 
and with each other, what can stand in the pathway of our progress 
and prosperity?" 

One Sentiment. — Later, upon the field of Antietam, where he had 
distinguished himself as commissary-sergeant when a lad of nine- 
teen, the President spoke again upon this subject, and said: "Stand- 
ing here to-day, one reflection only has crowded my mind — the differ- 
ence between this scene and that of thirty-eight years ago. Then the 
men who wore the blue and the men who wore the gray greeted each 
other with shot and shell, and visited death upon their respective ranks. 
We meet, after all these intervening years, with but one sentiment — 
that of loyalty to the Government of the United States, love of our 
flag and our free institutions, and determined, men of the North and 
men of the South, to make any sacrifice for the honor and perpetuity 
of the American nation." 

The Welding of the Nation. — The greatest of all the influences, 
however, which have brought about the complete union of the nation 
was his death. The welding of the nation had been going on rapidly 
throughout his administration, but it was only completed by the shock 
of the tragedy which ended his life. When tears flow together hearts 
are welded together. The ambition of his life was reached only by 
giving up his life. 



American History. 173 

XVI. 
HIS GUARDIAN ANGEL. 

Mr. Julian Hawthorne has said that the nation's faith in McKin- 
ley was founded on his deep love for his wife. Not long after her 
marriage Mrs. McKinley became a chronic invalid. She was naturally 
of a nervous organization, "exquisitely alive to impressions and 
emotions, but her infirmity removed her in a measure out of the 
common earthly sphere into a region where spirit seemed to over- 
balance inatter''' 

The Appeal of Frailty. — To a hard man such a wife would have 
become a burden, but Mrs. McKinley's frailty appealed to what was 
noblest and most generous in her husband. "It added to the ordinary 
husbandly tenderness of his attitude towards her a special reverence 
as for something sacred and exquisitely beyond common humanity; 
it prompted him to make her the end and ideal of his life." It was his 
deepest desire to make her feel — what, indeed, was the very truth — 
that so far from being a clog upon him, she was in the highest sense 
more than ever his protector and his good angel ; a visible incarnation 
of the Providence that watched over him and pointed upward. 

"The wife of no public man" — I again quote Mr. Hawthorne's 
beautiful words — "has been closer to the man she loved than he kept 
her to him. She sat or drove, or stood by his side, within reach of his 
protecting arm, where his eyes, turning upon her, might meet her own ; 
where his voice, uttering loving words, might reach her ears; where 
the smile that brightened his face might at the same moment shine 
from hers. Such was their tender relation and intimacy as they became 
known to the nation whose Chief Magistrate he rose to be. 

His Inspiration. — "Few indeed could personally know Mrs. 
McKinley. Yet all who knew McKinley were unawares entering 



174 Mhmorial Tolume op 

into knowledge of his wife. He manifested her; she inspired the 
gentleness of his voice and the kindliness of his look; she was lumi- 
nous in his religious faith; she was visihle in that deep hvimanity 
which uttered itself so nobly in the word of pity and protection which 
he spoke in behalf of the wretch who slew him. 

''The confidence in the holiness of God's will which broke through 
the shadows of his latest moments had been kindled at the altar of his 
love for her ; the confidence long since deeply instilled, now avouching 
its integrity in the supreme trial." 

A Beautiful Tribute. — "Do you know Major McKinley?" said 
Mrs. McKinley to a friend at New Orleans, during the President's 
tour across the continent. 

"Ah, no one can know him, because to appreciate him one must 
know him as I do, and I am not speaking now of Major McKinley as 
the President, I am speaking of him as my husband. 

"If any one could know what it is to have a wife sick, complaining 
always, an invalid for twenty-five years, seldom a day well, and yet 
never a word of unkindness has ever passed his lips. He is just the 
same tender, thoughtful, kind gentleman I knew when first he came 
and sought my hand. I know him because I am his wife, and it is my 
proudest pleasure to say this, not because he is the President, but 
because he is my husband. 

"I love to see him among the people whom he seeks to serve so 
faithfully.. But I dread all his speeches. I only wish that I could help 
him as I should. But he is so kind, so good, so patient. He gives me 
all the time he can. He never forgets me, no matter how busy he is. 

"But I will be glad when he is out of public life. I did not want 
him to run a second time. I thought he had done enough for the coun- 
try, and now I know that he has done enough, and when his term 
expires he will come home and we will settle down quietly and he will 
belong to me." 

Mrs. Charles Criswold, of Washington, who was, before her mar- 



American History. 175 

riage, a Canton girl, was often brought into close contact with Mrs. 
McKinley at the AYhite House and knew her intimately. 

Lovers to the End.— "The family life of Mr. and Mrs. McKin- 
ley/' she said to a reporter, "was beautiful. Such perfect devotion as 
existed between them rs rarely seen. They were like two young lovers 
to the very end. To the President his wife was always the girl sweet- 
heart whom he had wooed and won so long ago, and terrible as the loss 
of him must be to that dearly loved wife, it falls no more heavily upon 
her than her death would have upon him, if it had occurred last 
spring. At that time ]\Ir. McKinley was completely unnerved. All 
who knew him said that his wife's death would have been a crushing 
blow from which he could scarcely have rallied. Illness, trouble, loss 
of their children and of property only served to draw them more 
clsoely together." 

Mrs. Criswold said that in spite of her infirmity Mrs. McKinley's 
nature is a very happy one, and that when alone with her husband and 
old friends she is as light-hearted and gay as a young girl. She used 
to relate with glee the story of the remark made by an Irish washer- 
woman : 

"Sure, an' if the thruth was known, me an' the Prisident is blood 
kin, that we are ! Me name is McKinney, and that's the same that his 
was before he got the stylish end hitched on to it." 

In their early married life Mrs. McKinley had often called her 
husband "Will," and ]\rrs. Criswold says that sometimes even after his 
accession to the Presidential chair the old name would slip out. 

"I remember once when Mr. McKinley was speaking of a par- 
ticularly lovely girl who had just made her debut in Washington 
society, and said that he had often fancied that if his oldest daughter 
had lived she would have resembled her. Mrs. McKinley was lying 
on the sofa and, her husband sat near her. When he ceased speaking 
she stretched out her hand and slipped it into his and said: 'God 
knew best, Will/ 



176 Memorial Volume of 

"As a man, Mr. Mclvinley was brave, slraightforward and honest; 
as a friend he was generous and loyal. To have seen him and his wife 
together, and to have enjoyed a personal knowledge of them is a 
privilege for which I shall never cease to be grateful." 

Distinguishing Traits.— Perhaps Mrs. McKinley's most distin- 
ffuishinff trait is her intense love for little children. It was always 
said in Washington that the woman who brought the prettiest baby 
was sure to secure from her more attention than the highest diplomat at 
the Capital. When Mrs. McKinley went to Canton, after the Presi- 
dent's house was opened, nearly every child in town was brought to 
see her. At one time she know the name of every Canton tot; and 
she has often confessed with a sigh in late years that she did not know 
them by name now. 

Her Love for Little Children. — "I dislike to hurt their feelings," 
she would say, '^y asking their names." 

For years she has been known as "x\untie Kinley" to all the chil- 
dren in Canton. The first question she asks of a child is, "I am your 
Auntie Kinley, am I not ?" And when the child says "Yes," the com- 
pact of devotion is at once signed between them. She takes great 
delight in watching the little ones romping, and when at the White 
House on Easter Monday, if her health would permit, she would sit 
at one of the south windows and watch for hours the children of all 
ages and stations rolling eggs on the lawn — a time-honored custom. 
Whenever there were children among the guests at the White House, 
Mrs. McKinley always appropriated them for the time being. 

Fondness for Flowers. — Like all lovers of little children, Mrs. 
McKinley is devoted to flowers, and at the White House took a deep 
interest in the magnificent conservatories connected with the mansion. 
She spent much of her time rambling about in the conservatories, and 
it will be remembered that her favorite photographs have been taken 
in a particular nook of one of them. Her favorite flowers are pansies 
and forget-me-nots, although her greatest interest centered in the culti- 



American History. 17'i[ 

vation of the carnations which were transplanted from ]\[other 
McKinlcy's garden at Canton, the blossoms from which were alwa3's 
to be found on the lapel of the President's coat. She loves music, as 
do all lovers of flowers, and she is especially fond of a fine horse. 

Altliough ]\Irs. McKinley received an advanced education, and 
was taught decidedly advanced theories about the sphere of woman, she 
remains to this da}" decidel}' feminine in all her tastes. She has a 
woman's fondness for rare lace, and she has a choice collection which 
she began during her visit to Europe in her girlhood. She is very 
dainty and tasteful in her dress, and very particular about her bonnets, 
wliich are exceedingly becoming to her. Largely because of her invalid- 
ism, perhaps, she has clung to the occupations of women of a genera- 
tion ago. She is exceedingly charitable and gives a great deal for the 
relief of the unfortunate. 

Little Slippers by the Thousand. — One of the diversions of the 
home life of Mrs. ]\lclvinley at the White House was found in fancy 
work, and particularly in crocheting dainty little slippers, which she 
gave away, it is said, literally by thousands. She once estimated that 
she had knitted fully four thousand pairs of footwarmers for little 
ones. Some were given to personal friends, others to charit}' bazaars 
and church fairs. 

Her life in the White House was exceedingly simple. Her favorita 
room looked out over the river to Virginia, and here she would sit at 
the window throughout the morning. In the afternoon she would 
drive with the President, after which they would dine together very 
simply. 

Everyday Life. — She would never allow her illness to close the 
doors of the White House to social life, and always kept her receiving 
days and sat at all the formal dinners with great punctuality. In the 
evening she would sit in the hall in the wing that leads to the conserva- 
tory, always in a great mahogany armchair, and with her knitting 
needles in her hand. The President would sit there with her 
12 



178 Memorial Volume of 

reading his joaper or talking to Cabinet officers and Senators who 
might drop in for a chat. Mrs. McKinley was never excluded from 
these talks, no matter how mnch they might deal with momentous 
questions, for the President made a confidant of her from the very 
beginning. She talked little and rarely entered into the conversation, 
but was a good listener. She always had about her a certain quiet 
manner that comes from great suffering. When she expressed a wish 
to retire the President would give her his arm and assist her to her 
room. 

A New Side to Her Character. — The announcement that Dr. 
Rixey, the physician to the Presidential household, had been appointed 
surgeon-general of the United States Navy by President Eoosevelt, 
in accordance with the expressed wish of Mr. McKinley, brings out a 
hitherto unknown side of Mrs. McKinley's character. 

Speaking of the deep devotion that existed between Mr. McKinley 
and his wife, a writer in a Boston journal says : 

"She, invalid though she may be, has been able to make herself 
felt in a political way more than once since this administration came in. 
One instance of particular interest has come into prominence in naval 
circles. When Surgeon-General Bates, of the navy, died, he had 
occupied the position only a fortnight, having taken the oath of office 
on his deathbed; but when his appointment was decided on he was 
supposed to be good for years of service. The office of surgeon-general 
is one of the most sought-for billets in the navj'. It is supposedly the 
goal of the ambition of every medical man connected with the service, 
the occasion of intrigues without end. But, strange to say. Dr. Bates 
never sought the place, and if the matter had been left to him alone, 
he would doubtless not have taken it. 

"Surgeon-General Tryon, whose services expired this summer, 
was a candidate for reappointment, and up to very near the time his 
successor was named, never had suspicion he was not to continue in 
office. He was to retire in two years on account of age, and entertained 



American History. 179 

a natural ambition to retire witli the rank of commodore, which goes 
to a surgeon-general actually in office. ISTobody grudged him the 
distinction, and his reappointment was taken for granted. Secretary 
Long called Tryon to his room and asked him whether there was any 
other candidate for his place. Tryon had not heard of any. 

"'I ask you/ said the Secretary, 'because the President has 
requested me to let him know when your term expires.' 

"This set Tryon to thinking. The first man he met after leaving 
the Secretary's office was Dr. Bates, the President's physician. Dr. 
Bates knew of no candidate. He wasn't one himself. 

"'But I ought to tell you,' he said, 'that Mrs. McKinley has 
promised my wife that I shall be appointed, and I suppose the 
appointment will be made.' 

"The oddity of the announcement took Tryon off his feet, 
especially as he knew Bates was not over-anxious for the place. 

"Then Tryon set to work to save himself. He brought all his 
influence to bear, and this was no small matter, for he had powerful 
friends; but it was of no avail against the wish of the President's wife." 



180 Memorial Volume of 

XVII. 
HIS HOME LIFE. 

Great as he was as the exponent of the political doctrines which 
iie loved, and as President of the nation, it was in his home life that 
President McKinley displayed the real beauty of his character. Much 
of this, of course, is too sacred to be revealed, but a writer in the 
Louisville Post has given us a few glimpses which suggest in an unmis- 
takable way the nobility of the man whom the nation mourns. 

"The hackneyed phrase of 'JefLcrsonian simplicity,'" he says, 
"may well be replaced by the more modern one of 'McKinley modesty/ 
which expresses a word epitome of the homelife of the President. 

"This simplicity v:as sincere, as evident to those who have been 
associated with him all his life as members of his official family and 
those who observed him from the public point of view. A quiet smoke, 
a talk with Mrs. McKinley, a favorite newspaper on a shady piazza, 
appealed more to the President than did the whirl of the chief execu- 
iiveship of vrhat he firmly believed to be the greatest nation on earth. 

An L^npretentions Cottage. — "While the alterations of his public 
position vrere numerous, but little change was made in the- domestic 
and personal life of Mr. and Mrs. McKinley. The home they occupied 
until Thursday before tlioy left on the deplorable trip to Buffalo is 
the same unassuming cottage they entered as bride and groom over 
lliirty years ago. The addition of five rooms and the erection of a 
;vnrtc-cochere alters the exterior appearance to a certain degree, but 
I'ne interior is as simple as plain wood and immaculate paper and 
iiangings can make it. 

"In Mrs. McKinley's boudoir the same simple marble mantel 
graces the apartment, some of the same durable furniture fills the home 
with sweet and sad memories of the past. 



American History. 181 

''T^o President except Washington and Jefferson retained their 
residences in the same domicile following their elevation to the Presi- 
dency, yet it was always the announced intention of President McKiu- 
ley to end his days in this simple little wooden cottage on Xorth 
Market street, in Canton. 

Humble Beg-inning.— "Many are the friends of the McKinleys in 
Washington who recall the hiimhle beginning of the President in the 
practice of law in Canton. His moral uprightness, his affiliation 
with the First Methodist Church, his adherence to the principles 
of honor and fair dealing in his legal practice commended him immedi- 
ately to the people of the little town, all too ready to recognize weak- 
ness in a new resident. So it was not long until William McKinley 
became known as a leader in affairs of his adopted town." 

He Cherished Her. — The same writer says that on the evening 
of Mr. McKinley 's marriage to Ida Saxton, Mrs. Harriet Whiting, a 
friend of both bride and groom, took Mr. McKinley aside, and said : 

"Major, I want to impress one word of this marriage service 
upon you. It is the word ^cherish.' You are worthy of Ida and she 
of you, so really cherish each other." 

A few months ago, during the nearly fatal illness of Mrs. McKin- 
ley in San Francisco, Mrs. Whiting related the conversation and said : 

"I told him to cherish her, and he has done it to the full." 

This sentence, he says, might also typify the home life of the 
President, either in Canton or Washington. Immediately after the 
wedding ceremony the young couple took the cottage they still occupy 
and have retained it practically ever since. Mr. Saxton, father of Mrs. 
McKinley, at first objected to his daughter leaving his home, and 
proposed that the young people remain under the Saxton roof, but 
the mother, with a keen insight into the young woman's character, 
said: 

"Nothing so brings out the good in a girl as life alone with her 
husband. If there is strength in Ida, life under her own roof with her 
mate will bring it to the front." 



183 Memorial Volume of 

And so the early trials and triumphs were experienced in the 
little cottage; here the two little ones were born, and lingered only- 
long enough to leave behind them the pale effulgence of infantile inno- 
cence, to bind into one the lives of wife and husband, and give the 
world the proof of a lasting affection. 

Social Tastes. — The social tastes of Mr. and Mrs. McKinley were 
modest in the extreme, and, as a rule, were limited at home to little 
musicales, in which the young friends entertained their host and 
hostess with vocal and instrumental music. The last affair of the 
kind the President attended was in Canton during the last week he 
was there. 

Since residing at the White House little modification has been 
made in the mode of living of the McKinleys. The friends of their 
early married life were invariably received as freely as at Canton. 
Little evening musicales were arranged, and no matter how busy the 
President might have been, he always managed to steal a few minutes 
from official duties to come and sit with Mrs. McKinley for a short 
time. His own greatest pleasure in life seemed to be in making her 
happy; he never forgot to "cherish" her, as he promised to do thirty 
years ago. Their guests for the most part were friends from Ohio — 
usually nieces and nephews. 

One little duty which seemed to give all of the household pleasure 
was the sending of flowers to all the Washington hospitals at the holi- 
days. The hospitals at Canton were never forgotten, either, and 
personal friends in Washington, Canton and Chicago were in frequent 
receipt of floral remembrances from the White House conservatories 
when bedridden with illness. 

The great dread of the President in entering the White House 
were the drafts which were reported to sweep through the wide corri- 
dors and apartments. The day before his first inauguration he read 
aloud to a party of friends an article declaring that Mrs. McKinley 
could not survive a year in such a domicile. There was a marked 



American History. 183 

vein of sarcasm in his voice as he read the lines, but he evidently 
thought of the matter and instructed an architect to prepare plans 
by which the drafts might be obviated. This was successfully done, 
to the great relief of all who were cognizant of the real condition of 
his wife. Few social functions, aside from those demanded officially, 
have marked the four and a half years at the Executive Mansion. The 
great thought seemed to be the avoidance of ostentation and the preser- 
vation of the sweet domestic relation which has endeared the McKinleys 
to all thinking people. 

Mother McKinley's Faith in Her Son. — An incident is related to 
illustrate the simple faith the mother of the President reposed in her 
great son. It was on the evening of his first election to the Presidency. 
A party of friends were expressing their confidence in his selection, 
when one, to guard against the possible disappointment of a defeat, 
said: 

"Of course, he may be beaten." 

Drawing herself to her full height, the mother of this great man 
said simply, yet authoritatively : 

"It makes little difference. He will still be my son." 

And she would have been satisfied to have him as her own, without 
the honor of Chief Magistrate. 

Notwithstanding the great simplicity of the home life and small 
social functions of the President's private household, the American 
people have never had a President who so ably acquitted himself at the 
great social receptions and dinners that the exalted position of the 
Presidency demanded. Upon the occasion of brilliant official dinners, 
no amount of form or display was omitted that would add to the 
beauty and appropriateness of the occasion. 

ISTot even Washington, who instituted many customs which prevail 
to this day, knew better or appreciated more, what the American people 
expected and admired in the President than did ^Yilliam McKinloy. 

The manner in which the diplomatic guests were entertained and 



184 Memorial Volume of 

seated at table was often at the personal suggestion of the President. 
He never failed to visit the dining-room in company with ]\rrs. McKin- 
ley before the guests arrived. Even at the last moment he has been 
known to change the location of some diplomat at table on account of 
some small disparity of opinion or a personal dislike that he knew 
existed as to the affairs of the countries represented. 

When some noted guest, the representative of a foreign nation, 
was to be entertained, the President especially had as formal an array 
as possible with the somewhat limited facilities at the White House, 
that the true dignity of the position bestowed upon him by his country- 
men might be appreciated. 

In meeting the public at receptions, again the simplicity, but 
great dignity, of the President asserted itself, and while affable and 
agreeable, extending to all a wholesome, hospitable greeting, he never 
once lost his sense of the lofty position to which he had been exalted, 
and those who met him never forgot that he was the President. 



American History, 185 

XVIII. 
HIS LAST SPEECH. 

On Thursda}' before the fatal day the President delivered an 
address at the Buffalo Exposition which is so significant in many ways 
that I cannot refrain from quoting it here in full : 

Timekeepers of Progress. — "Expositions," he said, ''are the time- 
keepers of jDrogress. They record the world's advancement. They 
stimulate the energy, enterprise and intellect of the people and quicken 
human genius. They go into the home. They broaden and brighten 
the daily life of the people. They open mighty storehouses of informa- 
tion to the student. Every exposition, great or small, has helped to 
some onward step. Comparison of ideas is always educational, and 
as such instructs the brain and hand of man. Friendly rivalry follows, 
which is the spur to industrial improvement, the inspiration to useful 
invention and to high endeavor in all departments of human activity. 
It exacts a study of the wants, comforts and even the whims of the 
people, and recognizes the efficacy of high quality and new prices to win 
their favor. The quest for trade is an incentive to men of business to 
devise, invent, improve and economize in the cost of production. 
Business life, whether among ourselves or with other people, is ever a 
sharp struggle for success. It will be none the less so in the future. 
Without competition we would be clinging to the clumsy and anti- 
quated processes of farming and manufacture and the methods of 
business of long ago, and the twentieth century would be no further 
advanced than the eighteenth century. But though commercial com- 
petitors we are, commercial enemies we must not be. 

"My fellow citizens, trade statistics indicate that this country is 
in a state of unexampled prosperity. The figures are almost appalling. 
They show that we are utilizing our fields and forests and mines, and 



186 Memorial Volume of 

that we are furnishing profitable employment to the millions of work- 
ingmen throughout the United States, bringing comfort and happiness 
to their homes and making it possible to lay by savings for old age 
and disability. That all the people are participating in this great pros- 
perity is seen in every American community and shown by the 
enormous and unprecedented deposits in our savings banks. Our duty 
is the care and security of these deposits, and their safe investment 
demands the highest integrity and the best business capacity of those 
in charge of these depositories of the people's earnings. 

A Broad and Enlightened Policy. — "We have a vast and intricate 
business, built up through years of toil and struggle, in which every 
part of the country has its stake, which will not permit of either neglect 
or of undue selfishness. Xo narrow, sordid policy will subserve it. 
The greatest skill and wisdom on the part of manufacturers and pro- 
ducers will be required to hold and increase it. Our industrial enter- 
prises, which have grown to such great proportions, affect the homes 
and occupations of the people and the welfare of the country. Our 
capacity to produce has developed so enormously and our products have 
so multiplied that the problem of more markets requires our urgent 
and immediate attention. Only a broad and enlightened policy will 
keep what we have. No other policy will get more. In these times of 
marvelous business energy and gain we ought to be looking to the 
future, strengthening the weak places in our industrial and commercial 
systems, that we may be ready for any storm or strain. 

A Mutual Exchange of Commodities. — "By sensible trade arrange- 
ments, which will not interrupt our home production, we shall extend 
the outlets for our increasing surplus. A system Avhich provides a 
mutual exchange of commodities, is manifestly essential to the con- 
tinued and healthful growth of our export trade. We must not repose 
in fancied security that we can forever sell everything and buy little 
or nothing. If such a thing were possible, it would not be best for us 
or for those with whom we deal. We should take from our customers 



American History. 187 

such of their products as we can use without harm to our industries 
and labor. Eeciprocity is the natural outgrowth of our wonderful 
industrial development under the domestic policy now firmly estab- 
lished. What we produce beyond our domestic consumption must have 
a vent abroad. The excess must be relieved through a foreign outlet, 
and we should sell everywhere we can and buy wherever the buying 
will enlarge our sales and productions, and thereby make a greater 
demand for home labor. 

The Pressing Problem.— "The period of exclusiveness is past. 
The expansion of our trade and commerce is the pressing problem. 
Commercial wars are unprofitable. A policy of good will and friendly 
trade relations will prevent reprisals. Eeciprocity treaties are in har- 
mony with the spirit of the times ; measures of retaliation are not. 

"If perchance some of our tariffs are no longer needed for revenue 
or to encourage and protect our industries at home, why should they 
not be employed to extend and promote our markets abroad ? Then, 
too, we have inadequate steamship service. Xew lines of steamers have 
already been put in commission between the Pacific Coast ports of the 
United States and those on the Western coasts of Mexico and Central 
and South America. These should be followed up with direct steam- 
ship lines between the Eastern coast of the United States and South 
American ports. 

Need of Direct Commercial Lines to New Fields. — "One of the 
needs of the times is direct commercial lines from our vast fields oi 
production to the fields of consumption that we have but barely 
touched. Xext in advantage to having the thing to sell is to have the 
convenience to carry it to the buyer. We must encourage our merchant- 
marine. We must have more ships. They must be under the Amer- 
ican flag, built and manned and owned by Americans. These will not 
only be profitable in a commercial sense ; they will be messengers of 
peace and amity wherever they go. We must build the Isthmian canal, 
which will unite the two oceans and give a straight line of water com- 



188 Memorial Volume of 

munication with the western coasts of Central and South America and 
Mexico. The construction of a Pacific cable cannot be longer post- 
poned. 

A Tribute to Blaine. — "In the furtherance of these objects of 
national interest and concern you are performing an important part. 
This exposition would have touched the heart of that American states- 
man whose mind was ever alert and thought ever constant for a larger 
commerce and a truer fraternity of the republics of the New World. 
His broad American spirit is felt and manifested here. He needs no 
identification to an assemblage of Americans anywhere, for the name of 
Blaine is inseparably associated with the Pan-American movement 
which finds this practical and substantial expression, and which we 
all hope will be firmly advanced by the Pan-American Congress that 
assembles this autumn in the capital of Mexico. The good work will 
go on. It cannot be stopped. These buildings will disappear; this 
creation of art and beauty and industry will perish from sight, but 
their influence will remain to 

" ' Make it live beyond its too short living, 
With praises and thanksgi\'ing.' 

Immortal Words. — "Who can tell the new thoughts that have been 
awakened, the ambitions fired and the high achievements that will be 
wrought through this exposition? Gentlemen, let us ever remember 
that our interest is in concord, not conflict, and that our real eminence 
rests in the victories of peace, not those of war. We hope that all who 
are represented here may be moved to higher and nobler effort for 
their own and the world's good, and that out of this city may come, 
not only greater commerce and trade for us all, but, more essential 
than these, relations of mutual respect, confidence and friendship which 
will deepen and endure. 

"Our earnest prayer is that God will graciously vouchsafe prosper- 
ity, happiness and peaca to all our neighbors, and like blessings to all 
the peoples and powers of earth." 



American History. 189 

XIX. 

THE SHOT THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD. 

On the tvrenty-ninth of April, 1901, a few weeks after his inau- 
guration for a second term, the President, accompanied by his wife 
and a party of friends, started on a tour across the continent. 

Kis Triumpliial Tour. — From beginning to end the tour 
was one great triumph. Xcver before had there been accorded to any 
President a welcome so cordial from all classes of people in all sec- 
tions. Everywhere he went he sang the sweet song of American 
prosperity to willing ears and everywhere he was received mtli remark- 
able demonstrations of good will. He had won the hearts of the peo- 
ple — all of the people — and it was realized as never before that he 
was the President of all the people. This tour, which was marred by 
the serious illness of ]\Irs. j\IcKinley in California, created so much 
enthusiasm that politicians began to talk of a third term. With his 
usual frankness he expressed his wishes about the matter in no uncer- 
tain terms: 

No Third Term. — "T regret," he wrote, "that the subject of a third 
term has been made. I doubt whether I am called upon to give it notice. 
But there are now questions of the greatest importance before the 
Administration and the country, and their Just consideration should 
not be prejudiced in the public mind by even the suspicion of the 
thought of a third term. In view, therefore, of the reiteration of tlie 
suggestion of it, I will say now, once for all, expressing a long-settled 
conviction, that I not only am not and will not be a candidate for a 
third term, but would not accept a nomination for it, if it were ten- 
dered me. 

''My only ambition is to serve through my second term to the 
acceptance of my countrymen, whose generous confidence I so deeply 



;190 Memorial Volume of 

appreciate, and then with ihera do my duty in the ranks of private 
citizenship." 

President's Day at the Exposition.— Shortly after returning to 
Washington the President and his wife moved to Canton for the 
summer. The fifth of September was President's Day at the Buffalo 
Exposition. President McKinley with Mrs. McKinley at his side and 
surrounded by eminent persons of high official rank in the service 
of this and other countries, faced a vast throng on the Esplanade at 
noon and delivered an address that was received with tumultuous 
applause. 

The Tragedy. — The following day he held a reception in the 
Temple of Music. It was shortly after four o'clock. He was in a notice- 
ably cheerful mood and seemed to be taking unusual pleasure in 
the cordial expressions of good will with which he was greeted. A 
little girl stepped forward in the line and stretched out her hand. 
The President took it and patting her affectionately on the head 
turned to the next comer. He was a man of medium size who had the 
air of a respectable mechanic. As he came forward it was noticed that 
his hand was swathed in a handkerchief as if to hide a wound. ISTo 
one dreamed of danger. Secret service men stood around the Chief 
Executive, but it was only the usual precaution. 

A Modern Iscariot. — Mr. McKinley smiled and extended his 
hand. Instead of grasping it the fellow threw forward his bandaged 
hand and with the other brushed aside the President's arm. Instantly 
a shot rang out ; then another. The President was seen to raise his 
right hand to his chest while a look of bewilderment passed over his 
face. His eyes settled upon the man before him. 

"That look," said an eye witness, "I can never describe, but I'll 
never forget it." 

The next moment the wounded man sank back into the arms of his 
secretary. 

"Cortelyou," he gasped, and the secretary bent over him. 



AMERTCAisr History. 191 

"Cortclyou, my wife. Be careful about her. Don't let her know." 

A Sublime Exhibition of Moral Grandeur. — As he turned about 
in his pain his ej^es fell ujoon his would-be murderer lying on the floor 
in the clutches of the otTicers. Eaising his right hand and placing 
it on the shoulder of the secretary, he whispered: 

"Let no one hurt him/' and then sank back into his chair. 

As has been often remarked, there is no finer instance of moral 
grandeur in all history than is to be found in this simple recital. That 
the President, in his hour of agony, should have given his first thought 
to his dear wife was beautiful, as all promptings of real love must be ; 
that his second feeling should have been one of pity and anxiety for 
the wretch who, without cause or provocation had done him to death, 
places him forever upon a plane of moral altitude infinitely removed 
from that attained by the average man. 

The Mexican Ambassador broke through the crowd and rushing 
up cried: 

"My God ! Mr. President, are you shot ?" 

He seemed about to throw himself at his feet but was restrained, 
and Mr. McKinley answered in a hesitating voice: 

"Yes, I believe I am." 

A few moments later as he was being carried away to the ambu- 
lance he turned to Mr. Milburn, the President of the Exposition, and 
said: 

"I am sorry to have been the cause of trouble to the Exposition." 

A Crazed Multitude. — The scene which followed beggars descrip- 
tion. For a moment the vast throng stood still in a daze; then it 
dawned upou those around the President that the bandaged hand 
carried not a wound but a revolver, and instantly a dozen men sprang 
toward the assassin. Two secret service men seized him and a negro 
confronted him and struck him three times in the face. There was 
a fierce struggle in which the negro and the assassin rolled over together 
on the floor, but in a few moments the officers managed to pull th(6 



193 Memorial Volume of 

prisoner off to a side room to the northwest corner of the Temple. 
In the meantime the great crowd had utterly lost its head and there 
was a wild, mighty roar as part of the throng rushed toward the Presi- 
dent, others toward the prisoner, while others ran screaming from the 
Imilding. The news spread quickly over the grounds and in a few 
moments fifty thousand people had gathered. The crowd followed 
the ambulance to the hospital and then divided, one part remaining 
to learn the condition of the President, the other hastening away to 
find the assassin. 

Arrest of the Assassin. — Czolgosz, for that was his real name, 
though he first gave the name of Xieman, was kept in the Temple 
until a company of soldiers had been summoned, when he was placed 
in a carriage and driven ofi'. The great throng followed him with cries 
of "Lynch him I"' Men sprang at the horses and clutched at the wheels 
of the carriage v.hile the assassin huddled back between two detectives. 
Soldiers fought their v\'ay at the heads of the horses and the carriage 
hurled across the Esplanade and out of the grounds to the police 
headquarters. Throughout the night the crowd remained about tlie 
police station and it was only when announced that hope was enter- 
tained for the life of the President that it slowly dispersed. 

An Anarchist. — Czolgosz vras searched, but nothing was found 
upon him except a letter relating to lodging. The officers questioned 
him and at first he refused to say anything except to admit that he 
attempted to kill the President, and that he was an Anarchist. Little 
by little bits of information were gotten from him until the police got 
the impression that he was one of a gang of Anarchists who had plot- 
ted the crime, and that he had been drawn by lot to kill the President. 
Later he declared that he alone was responsible for the deed, and that 
he was induced by the teachings of Emma Goldman, a notorious An- 
archist incendiary, to decide that the present form of government of 
this country was all wrong, and that the best way to end it was by the 
killing of the President. 



Americax History. 193 

The President's Wound. — While the crowd was tlireatening the 
life of the assassin, messengers were hurrying to bring to the Presi- 
dent's side the best surgeons that could be secured. Within thirty 
seconds, it is said, six doctors, vrho happened to be on the grounds, 
were at hand. In the hospital the President was stripped, and it was 
soon seen that an operation was necessary. 

When he was placed upon the operating table Dr. ^lann said : 

""Mr. President, we intend to cut into you at once. We allowed 
one President to die, but we don't intend to lose you." 

"I am in your hands," murmured the President. 

The story is told by an eye-witness. The doctors were ready to 
administer ether. The President opened his eyes and saw that he was 
about to enter a sleep from which he might never wake. He turned 
his great hazel eyes sorrowfully upon the little group. Then he closed 
his lips. His white face was suddenly lit by a tender smile. His soul 
came into his countenance. The wan lips moved. A singular and 
almost supernatural beauty possessed him, mild, childlike and serene. 
The surgeons paused to listen. 

"Thy "Will Be Done."— "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done." 
The voice was soft and clear. The tears rolled down Dr. ^lynter's face. 
The President raised his chest and sighed. His lips moved once more. 

"Thy will be done—" 

Dr. Mann paused with the keen knife in his hand. There was a 
lump in his throat. 

"For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory." 

The eyelids fluttered faintly, beads of cold sweat stood on the 
bloodless brow — there was silence. Then science succeeded prayer. 

The Operation. — The operation was signally successful ; the Presi- 
dent's respiration remained normal throughout, and it was stated that 
the only danger would be from complications that might afterwards 
arise. !Mr. ^McKinley showed no indication of having suffered from 
the shock or the operation. 
13 



194 Memorial Volume of 

When it was learned that his wounds were not necessarily fatal 
tlie house of President Milburn was placed at the disposal of the 
patient, and it was at once transformed into a well-guarded sanitarium 
with every facility for caring for the wounded man. 

A Heroic Wife. — Mrs. McKin'ey, after the first burst of grief, 
showed wonderful self-control, though probably the whole truth was 
not told her. On Sunday afternoon the President asked to see her 
and she was allowed to enter the sick room. She seated herself beside 
his bed and took his hand. Then President McKinley said quietly : 

'^e must bear up. It will be better for us both." 

His wife bowed her head and quickly left the room. 

A Terror-Stricken People. — When the news of the attempted assas- 
sination was flashed across the continent it struck a chill to the heart 
of the whole nation. Everywhere men grew dizzy and faint, and then 
recovering from their bewilderment sent up a great cry of horror and 
indignation. The consternation spread through every village and ham- 
let in the land. Xowhere were there signs of deeper grief than in the 
South, where the President was universally loved. The first meeting 
that was called to pray for his recovery was held in Eichmond, Va., the 
morning after the shooting. The Virginia Constitutional Convention 
adjourned for a day, after passing resolutions declaring that "the 
convention views with horror and execration the blow that has been 
struck at the entire nation in the person of its Chief Magistrate." 

Sympathy of Confederate Veterans. — Camps of Confederate vet- 
erans all over the South called special meetings, and passed resolutions 
of sympathy for the President who as a citizen had placed before the 
people a personal character which commanded respect, and who "in his 
relations to the veterans of the Confederate armies, has evinced a spirit 
of ehivalric gallantry we can but admire." To quote the words of one 
of these resolutions, "our prayers with those of all good citizens will go 
up in an appeal to God for the restoration of the President, who, even 
in this distressing misfortune, draws together in closer bonds of union 
the good, the true and the brave of all sections of our country." 



American History. 195 

Throughout the land the people were so stunned h}' the news that 
business was almost suspended for the da}*. In Canada there were 
almost as many demonstrations of grief as in the United States. 

HoTT the News Was Received in England. — The effect abroad was 
almost as profound. •'The shot that struck the American President," 
wrote Mr. William Stead, "was felt throughout the British Empire 
with a shock, while horror and indignation followed. It made the 
whole English nation feel as it had never felt before the unit}' of the 
English race. The race which was politicalh- cleft in twain by the folly 
of George III., is now reunited in sympathy and in community of 
interests." 

'Tngland Prays for McKinley," was printed in great black type 
across the front page of the London Evening Star. 

The Evening News said: "That he may be spared is the prayer 
of every Englishman throughout the Empire." 

The Sun said : "The abhorrent crime was committed from mere 
wantonness." 

The Eclw eulogized the personal traits of the President as those 
upon which Englishmen could dwell with unaffected appreciation. 

The Pall Mall Gazette said : "It is not too much to say that the 
whole Anglo-Saxon race is kneeling at the President's bedside." 

Telegrams of inquiry and sjTnpathy poured into London from 
every part of the empire. United States Ambassador Choate wrote 
that the citizens of London had received with profound regret and 
great indignation intelligence of the dastardly attack, and desired to 
c-onvey their sincere sympathy to America in the melancholy event. 

The proceedings of the Ecumenical Methodist Conference were 
suspended for the purpose of hearing read the telegrams concerning 
the condition of the President, and special prayers were offered for 
the preservation of his life. 

King Edward, Lord Eoberts and the mayors throughout Great 
Britain sent messages of sympathy to Mrs. McKinley. The feeling 



196 Memorial Volume op 

throughout the empire was onl}^ second to that which followed the 
death of Queen Victoria. 

Sympathy Throughout the World. — The news was received with 
many expressions of horror and indignation in all the great capitals of 
the world, and messages were sent to "Washington and to Mrs. McKinley 
from nearly every civilized court on earth. The German Emperor and 
Empress and the President of France were among the first to tender 
sympathy. 



American History. 197 

XX. 

A WORLD IN TEARS. 

Monday, the third day after the tragedy, which was regarded as 
the crucial j^eriod, was awaited with intense anxiety, and the whole 
country was relieved by the physicians' bulletin, which declared it to be 
a day of steady progress. On Tuesday it was stated that convalescence 
had begun, and that every one around the President and the President 
himself was sanguine of his ultimate return to health. So sure were 
those around him of his ultimate recovery that Vice-President Eoose- 
velt and several members of the official family took their departure. 
Eeports during the next few days told of apparent progress; then 
came a note of alarm. Bulletins announced that the President's con- 
dition was without material change except that he suffered from 
fatigue. "Fatigue" was a new word, and fear gnawed at the hearts 
of the people. 

Early Friday morning, when he was growing rapidly worse, his 
grand love for nature asserted itself. "I want to see the trees," he 
said; "they are so beautiful." 

"Towards noon," writes Mr. Cromwell, "when Dr. Eixey was at 
his bedside, he cast his eyes up at his faithful friend and murmured, 
'It is very gloomy, doctor ! How different from yesterday. Is tlie 
sunshine all gone ?' 

"It was going, for him — mortal sunshine — and ere another dawn 
it had gone from a nation. Shortly afterward he sank into uncon- 
sciousness. When he awoke from his stupor, about seven o'clock, it 
was to take an earthly farewell of her whom he loved best. His first 
thought was of his darling, his 'Idy,' and he faintly asked to see her. 
She was led to his side, and together they were left alone What passed 
in those, the holiest moments they ever spent together, no mortal mind 



198 Memorial Volume of 

will ever know. She had taken his hand when she entered and he had 
looked at her with the same old look she knew so well, wherein heart, 
soul, being beamed the message of devotion. Who shall know with 
what tenderness he faintly breathed words to encourage and comfort 
her? Who shall know, but God, the joint prayers they offered in the 
sanctuary of death ? She was led away, and he lapsed into unconscious- 
ness again." 

On returning to consciousness he would call for his wife, and her 
presence at his side seemed to soothe him. 

His lips were seen to move, and an attendant bending over him 
heard him feebly trying to chant "Xearer, My God, to Thee." A little 
later he said : 

"Good-bye ! all ; good-bye ! It's God's way. His will be done." 

Then he lapsed into unconsciousness and life began to flicker. 
The pulse had almost ceased. Still he lingered, though every moment 
they expected him to go. Finally, when the night was wearing away, 
at 2.30 o'clock Saturday, September 14, 1901, he passed from among 
us. 

"History," says Mr. Cromwell, "teems with recitals of the circum- 
stances attending the lives of the great, but as the burial of Moses 
stands out in solemn grandeur beyond all others, so the death of 
McKinley is unparalleled in the mortuary records of the great. Every 
characteristic of a grand nature was shown in some accentuated form 
during that brief period of eight days." 

At the autopsy it was found that there had been no evidence of 
any attempt at repair on the part of nature, and death resulted from 
gangrene which affected the stomach and the bullet wounds, as well 
as the tissue around the further course of the bullet. "Death was 
unavoidable by any surgical or medical treatment, and was the direct 
result of the bullet wound." 

At the moment the martyred President's soul took its flight, a 
man standing at a telephone in Buffalo cried : 



Americax History. 199 

"The President is dead !" 

The 'phone was connected with all the large cities of the country, 
and instantly the bells all over the land began to toll. The scenes 
which followed can never be described. Multitudes of strong men who 
liad stood waiting through the night in the streets of cities thousands 
of miles away broke down and cried aloud like little children. 

The Nations Mourn. — The news was received abroad with the most 
remarkable demonstrations of grief. In England the morning papers 
appeared in mourning, and contained dispatches showing that the 
whole world mourned with America. King Edward, after sending a 
message of sympathy to Buffalo, ordered his court in mourning for 
seven days. In London formal signs of grief were displayed on thou- 
sands of buildings, and great throngs of people called upon the 
American Ambassador to express their heartfelt sjTnpathy. The Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury sent a dispatch to Ambassador Choate, express- 
ing in behalf of the Church of England the deep grief with which it 
had heard of the death of the President. "The loss of so great a 
ruler," he said, "is a calamity to the whole world. The triumph of 
wickedness fills us with sorrow. Our prayer and good-will will be an 
earnest for the American people." 

The Lord ]\Iayor of London wrote to the Ambassador that the 
citizens of London were profoundly moved and deeply affected by the 
sad intelligence, and begged in their name to tender "heartfelt sym- 
pathy to be conveyed to Mrs. McKinley and the people of the United 
States. The eminent career and public services of Mr. McKinley," 
he said, "are widely appreciated here, and will long be remembered by 
the British people, who, having themselves sustained the loss of a 
beloved sovereign, more keenly sympathize with the United States in 
the sudden removal of their distinguished President." 

The Lord Chief Justice of England, on behalf of the Judges of 
Great Britain, said : "May God guide the nation, and lead others to 
follow the high example of the noble life set by him whose death the 
world mourns." 



200 Memorial Volume of 

Lord Pauncefote said : "The President will be mourned through- 
out the civilized world, I am at a loss to express my sorrow on public 
and private grounds and my profound sympathy with the American 
nation in its affliction." 

On Sunday, the day after his death, the "Dead March in Saul" 
was played in hundreds of churches throughout Great Britain, while 
the people reverently stood in honor of the memory of the dead Presi- 
dent. A minister in "Wales, while speaking of Mr. McKinley's death, 
was so overcome that he swooned in the pulpit and had to be taken 
home. 

Sympathy on the Continent. — The German Emperor cabled a 
message of sympathy, and ordered the flags on all government build- 
ings at half-mast. A^arious entertainments were canceled throughout 
Germany and arrangements were made for memorial services. Multi- 
tudes, including many notable German personages, called at the 
American Embassy and tendered their sympathy. The chamber of 
commerce and other great bodies of the land met and adopted resolu- 
tions appreciative of the dead President. 

There were demonstrations of sorrow throughout France, and 
the President of the French nation sent a message of sympathy to 
Mrs. McKinley. 

A dispatch from Eome stated that the Pope wept with uncon- 
trollable emotion on receiving the news of the President's death, and 
that he spent an hour during the day praying for his souL All the 
audiences at the Vatican were suspended. 

From nearly every capital on earth there came a message of 
sympathy. 



American History. 801 

XXI. 

THE LAST SAD RITES. 

On Sunday morning, September 15, a private funeral service was 
held in the Milburn home in Buffalo. It was marked by an absence of 
pomp, which was typical of the unostentatious life of the dead Presi- 
dent. Scarcely two hundred persons were present, including the new 
President, Mr. Eoosevelt, his Cabinet, members of the family of the 
deceased, and a few intimate friends. The services were brief and 
simple. At the close there was a solemn hush; for a moment no one 
moved. 

Senator Hanna's Farewell. — "Then a man," says one who wit- 
nessed the scene, "who seemed suddenly to have grown old, arose from 
his seat beside Governor Odell and slowly walked alone past the line of 
Cabinet officers to the side of the new President. His hands clasped 
behind his back, his head bent down on his great chest, Senator Hanna 
stood and gazed for the last time on the face of the man he loved. 

"It seemed to the mourners that he stood looking down at his 
dear friend's face for fully five minutes — in reality it was nearly two 
minutes — before he turned and slowly, sadly retraced his steps across 
the room. His eyes were suffused with tears, and on his face was a 
drawn, haggard look that was almost startling in its intensity. His 
were the last eyes to look on the face of the martyred President in the 
house where he had died." 

As Senator Hanna turned away the casket was closed, and the 
body-bearers, four soldiers and four sailors, advanced, and lifting it 
gently on their broad shoulders, slowly began their solemn march to 
the hearse, which stood waiting outside. Close behind the casket 
followed President Eoosevelt, with Secretary Eoot on his left and the 
other members of the Cabinet following. Slowly they made their way 



202 Memorial Volume of 

out of the hall, down the steps and down the walk to the hearse, while 
a band posted across the street softly played "N"earer, My God, to 
Thee." 

Lying in State. — The procession moved through a vast throng to 
the City Hall, where the body, lying in state, was viewed by fully one 
huDdred and fifty thousand people. There were many affecting inci- 
dents as the tearful throng passed the casket. Toward the end of the 
afternoon a band of Indians from the Exposition, in their blankets and 
feathers, followed by their squaws, filed by. They had come to see the 
Great Father. A few hours before they had sent a wreath of purple 
asters, accompanied by a pathetic inscription : 

"Farewell of Chief Geronimo, Blue Horse, Flat Iron and Eed 
Shirt and the seven hundred braves of the Indian Congress. Like 
Lincoln and Garfield, President McKinley never abused authority 
except on the side of mercy. The martyred great white chief will 
stand in memory next to the Saviour of mankind. We loved him 
living ; we love him still." 

As they passed each of them dropped a white carnation upon the 
President's coffin. 

The Start for Washington. — Early Monday morning the casket 
was taken from the City Hall and carried to the train for the journey 
to Washington. Although it was hardly seven o'clock the streets along 
the route were jammed with struggling masses. The procession was 
headed by a squad of sailors, and behind them came the hearse under 
the guard of a file of marines. A great crowd was gathered around 
the station. The coffin was placed on a bier in an observation car, 
whiled the band played "Nearer, My God, to Thee," the hymn that was 
to be played and sung thousands of times before the body should reach 
the distant tomb. 

The catafalque had been raised so high that the casket was visible 
from the roadside. It was entirely draped in a great flag, only a sheaf 
of ripened grain resting on the top. There were many floral wreaths, 



American History. 203 

but they were hung around the coffin. Only the car containing the 
casket was draped and the engine, which was covered with closely 
plaited crape. 

Sorrow Everywhere. — Through every city and hamlet that the 
train passed some emblem of sorrow was shown. In the busy places 
all occupations ceased, and man and woman, boy and girl, went forth 
to do sad homage. In the remotest spots where human kind was 
scarcely suspected, uncouth and often solitary figures stood uncovered 
and watched with blank and ignorant regret. There was no place 
where living creatures gathered that did not in some sense, however 
vague, feel grief and manifest it in an outward token. In many places 
for hundreds of yards fair women had strewn the track with roses. 
There were twelve long hours of tolling bells and glimpses of thousands 
and thousands of men, women and children drawn up in line along 
both sides of the track, of crape-bound banners and of flowers, and the 
sound of muffled drum-beats, and the solemn notes of "Nearer, My 
God, to Thee," and everywhere bared and bowed heads and faces that 
showed the impress of an unspeakable sorrow. 

The Last Night at the White House. — It was night when the train 
reached Washington. It entered silently without the clanging of bells 
or disturbing escape of steam. As the casket was placed in the hearse 
the bugle sounded "taps" and the troops presented arms. A solemn 
procession followed the body to the White House, where it was taken 
in response to Mrs. McKinley's request that he might spend one night 
there before he was laid to his final rest. 

The Vigil. — All through the night a sentry paced back and forth 
on the portico, while in the East room, with its dim-burning lights and 
great black coffin, the guard of honor stood motionless in its watch over 
the dead. 

Tuesday morning opened drearily enough, with clouds hanging 
like a pall over the city. The people began to gather early, and by 
nine o'clock, when the procession started, the streets were jammed with 



304 Memorial Volume of 

a sorrowing multitude. The body-bearers silently raised the coffin to 
their shoulders and moved toward the main door of the White House. 
Instantly the band began to play "Nearer, My God, to Thee." Slowly 
down the driveway, through a dreary, drizzling rain, the procession 
wound its way to the gate, and for a moment halted while the Artillery 
Baud began the "Dead March in Saul." The blast from a bugle 
sounded, and the procession moved on its way to the Capitol. 

At the Capitol. — At 10.12 the head of the procession reached the 
Capitol plaza. As the hearse halted in front of the main stairway the 
troops presented arms. The guard of honor ascended the steps, the 
naval officers on the right and the army officers on the left, forming a 
cordon on each side. Behind them were ranks of artillerymen, seamen 
and marines. As the body-bearers drew the coffin from the hearse 
every head in the great throng was bared, and the bands played 
"Nearer, My God, to Thee." With solemn tread the bearers ascended 
the stairway and bore the casket to the catafalque in the rotunda. 

The State Funeral, — The funeral services were simple but exceed- 
ingly impressive, the military feature being preserved in every par- 
ticular except in the matter of the funeral oration, which was deliv- 
ered by Bishop Andrews. The ritual of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, of which he was a member, was adhered to throughout. 

When all were seated a solemn hush fell upon the audience, and 
the choir sang softly "Lead, Kindly Light." Tlie Rev. Dr. Kaylor, 
Presiding Elder of the Washington District of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, delivered the invocation. The lessons were then read, 
and the choir sang "Some Time We'll Understand." Then Bishop 
Andrews, the lifelong friend of Mr. McKinley, arose, and, taking his 
place at the head of the coffin, delivered the sermon. In his delineation 
of the character of the dead President, which was extremely touching, 
he said : 

A Touching Tribute. — "The kindly, calm and equitable tempera- 
ment, the kindly and generous heart, the love of justice and right 



American History. 205 

and the tendency toward faith and loyalty to unseen powers and 
authorities — these things have been with him from his childhood, from 
his infancy, hut upon them supervened the training for which he was 
always tenderly thankful and of which even this great nation from 
sea to sea continually has taken note. 

"It was an humble home in which he was born. i^Tarrow condi- 
tions were around him; but faith in God had lifted that lowly roof, 
according to the statement of some great writer, up to the very heavens, 
and permitted its inmates to behold the things eternal, immortal and 
divine, and he came under that training. 

His Reverence for His Mother. — "It is a beautiful thing that to 
the end of his life he bent reverently before that mother whose exam- 
ples and teaching and prayer had so fashioned his mind and all his 
aims. The school came but briefly, and then came to him the church 
with ministration of power. He accepted the truth which it taught. 
He believed in God and in Jesus Christ, through whom God was 
revealed. He accepted the divine law of the Scripture; he based his 
hope on Jesus Christ, the appointed and only Eedeemer of man, and 
the church, beginning its operation upon his character at an early 
period of his life, continued even to his close to mould him. He waited 
attentively upon its ministrations. He spoke with his brethren of the 
sympathies of mysterious passion and redeeming love of the Lord 
Jesus Christ. He was helpful in all of those beneficiencies and activi- 
ties, and from the church to the close of his life he received inspiration 
that lifted him above much trouble and weakness incident to our 
human nature, and, blessings be to God, may we saj^ in the last and 
final hour, they enabled him confidently, tenderly, to say, 'It is His 
will, not ours: Thy will be done.' 

No Stain Upon His Escutcheon. — "Such influences gave to us 
William IMcKinley. And what was he? A man of incorruptible per- 
sonal and political integrity. I suppose no one ever attempted to 
approach him in the way of a bribe; and we remember, with great 



206 Memorial Volume of 

felicitation at this time, for such an example to our services that when 
great financial difficulties and perils encompassed him, he determined 
to deliver all he possessed to his creditors; that there should be no 
challenges of his perfect honesty in the matter. A man of immaculate 
purity shall we say? Xo stain was upon his escutcheon; no syllable 
of suspicion that I ever heard was whispered against his character. 
He walked in perfect and noble control. Beyond that this man had 
somehow wrought in him — I suppose on the foundations of a very hap- 
pily constructed nature — a great and generous love for his fellowmen. 
He believed in men. He had himself been brought up among the 
common people. He knew their labors, struggles, necessities." 
The Bishop's concluding words will never be forgotten : 
Memorable Words. — "If there is a personal immortality before 
him, let us also rejoice that there is an immortality and memory in the 
hearts of a large and ever-growing people, who, through the ages to 
come, the generations that are yet to be, will look back upon this life, 
upon its nobility and purity and service to humanity, and thank God 
for it. The years draw on when his name shall be counted among the 
illustrious of the earth, William of Orange is not dead. Cromwell is 
not dead. Washington lives in the hearts and lives of his countrymen. 
Lincoln with his infinite sorrow lives to teach us and lead us on. And 
McKinley shall summon all statesmen and all his countrymen to purer 
living, nobler aims, sweeter faith and immortal blessedness." 

As he closed the entire audience joined in singing "Kearer, My 
God, to Thee." In the midst of the singing Admiral Evans advanced 
and placed a beautiful blue floral cross at the foot of the coffin. It was 
from ex-President Cleveland. Then the Benediction was pronounced 
by Dr. Chapman, and after a pause for a few moments the assemblage 
began to withdraw. The people who remained in the rotunda were 
now formed in lines to view the features of the dead President. At 
each corner of the catafalque a sailor took his station and stood at 
attention, motionless, while on either side eight marines were drawn 



American History. 207 

np. The crowd passed in single file on either side of the bier. There 
was a thrill of pity in the heart of every one, so changed were the fea- 
tures from those which had been known in life; and those who had 
known him intimately could not refrain from tears. "How pitiful I" 
they whispered as they passed. 

A Last Look. — Later the doors were opened, and from that time 
until six o'clock a vast unbroken stream of mourners passed the coffin. 
They poured through the rotunda in thousands, and when at 6.25 the 
doors were closed there were still many thousands struggling to get in. 
Several times the throng was swept into confusion, and in the struggle 
many were thrown under the feet of the mass. 

The Last Journey. — After the doors were closed the guards who 
had all the day held back the crowd were permitted to look at the face of 
the President, and then the cover of the casket was screwed down and 
lifted once more upon the shoulders of the body-bearers. As they 
descended the broad stairway the time was marked by minute guns, 
stationed in the Capitol grounds. The coffin was placed in the hearse, 
and was escorted on its journey to the station by a committee from the 
army and navy and two squadrons of cavalry. 

At 8.20 o'clock the funeral train started from the Pennsylvania 
Depot on its final journey. Along the track were gathered hundreds 
of thousands of sorrowing people. In the observation car the coffin, 
which was in full sight, was surrounded by great banks of floral offer- 
ings. The guards who stood on either side of the bier were knee-deep 
in flowers. In the rear section of the car the marines and soldiery sat 
motionless, with folded arms. 

Sorrowing Onlookers. — As the train went flying past the villages 
and hamlets there were the same demonstrations of affection and grief 
that had marked the journey from Buffalo. Though the rain fell 
unceasingly, and though the train went so fast that the people could 
scarcely catch a glimpse of the bier, yet the throng stood waiting in the 
night and watching, simply to uncover their heads in expression of 
their grief. 



208 Memorial Volume of 

Home Again. — It was noon on Wednesday when the funeral train 
rolled into Canton. Its approach was unheralded. No whistle was 
blown, and there was no panting of the exhaust pipes. At the mere 
sight of tlie train the crowd that had been waiting for hours broke 
down and sobbed. When the engine came to a standstill, Judge Day 
and the Committee of Eeception moved down the platform to the 
catafalque car and waited. Mrs. McKinley, overwhelmed with a fresh 
burst of grief, was helped from the train and hurried to a carriage 
and driven rapidly to her home. The cofBn was lifted from the car 
and carried to the waiting hearse. Mr. McKinley was home again. 

"This is the most beautiful street in the world," he had said to a 
friend the day before leaving for Buffalo. And he added, "I shall 
spend the rest of the summer here very happily." 

He had come back to spend the rest of the summer. 

The soldiers presented arms and the bugles sounded taps. Presi- 
dent Eoosevelt and his Cabinet entered carriages. Then came the 
guard of honor in full uniform, and the procession moved toward the 
Court House through dense masses of weeping people. Here the body 
lay in state until night. 

The collection of floral tributes had now grown to be the largest 
ever seen in America. The conservatories of the whole country had 
been taxed to supply them. The great monarchs of the world, the 
presidents of republics, the governors of distant colonies had cabled 
directions to adorn the bier of the dead President with the sweetest 
and most fragrant of flowers. Numerous as these tributes were, how- 
ever, they were scarcely noticeable by the side of the tons of flowers 
that had been sent by the President's own countrymen. It is said that a 
list of those who sent them would be almost a complete roster of all the 
prominent people in official, commercial and social life in x^merica. 
Among these tributes was a cradle made of white roses, which was 
brought in a procession of one hundred men and women from Niles, 
where Mr. McKinley was born. 



American History. 20& 

Among- Those Who Loved Him Best. — When everything was ready 
for the people of Canton to take a hist look at the face of their best 
loved citizen, Joseph Saxton, uncle of Mrs. McKinley, a man bowed 
deeply with the weight of years, entered from the east hall and stood 
by the casket gazing into the face of his distinguished kinsman. It 
was a touching sight. Then the door was opened and the people began 
to file past. By night practically the entire population of Canton had 
passed the bier. 

A Touching Incident. — Many pathetic incidents occurred. A 
little girl in passing stopped to press a kiss upon the glass and then 
ran away with streaming eyes. One of the guards thought he saw 
her drop something, and looked. He found, hidden away among the 
costly wreaths, a little cluster of common garden flowers, and through 
it was tied with a piece of thread a note written in a childish hand : 

"Dear ]\rr. McKinley : I wish I could send you some prettier 
flowers, but these are all I have. I am sorry you got shot." 

At six o'clock the doors were closed and the body was removed to 
the McKinley home. Mrs. j\rcKinley had expressed a desire that he 
should spend one more night there. 

Canton was grieving for the loss of the man, not the President. 
The newspaper correspondents found the town brimful of reminis- 
iscences. The very walls and trees seemed to vibrate with stories of 
Ohio's favorite son. "He was never the President here," said his 
neighbors, "but just 'The j\Iajor,' the same Major we knew when he 
marched home from the wars." 

One story that was told to a correspondent was peculiarly inter- 
esting, as it showed why Canton that knew the dead so well loved him 
so much. 

Just a few days before the President and his wife left for 

Buffalo, there was a picnic of the Catholic Orphan Asylum, at Lewis- 

ville, about seven miles from here. In the afternoon the President 

drove over to say a word of good cheer to the children. The first to 

14 



210 Memorial Volume op 

greet him was a man wrinkled with age, the barber who had shaved 
his father before him, and shaved the President in his younger days. 

"How do, Peter," was the President's greeting. "Why_, Mr. Presi- 
dent/' began the aged barber; but the President's hand was raised 
in protest. "No, no, Peter," he laughingly explained, "I am never 
the President here at home. I am still the Major that I always was." 

"It was for its beloved Major that Canton so often honored that 
the pillows are wet with tears. Woe to the man who whispers an 
ill word on her streets to-night. One tried it this afternoon. The 
simple words, 'Canton should be happy now,' had scarcely left his 
lips before he was felled with, a blow that left him senseless. He would 
have been killed had not police and soldiers interfered." 

The town was a mass of black. Business had been suspended. 
Arches of mourning rose where once stood arches of triumph. These 
solemn loops of black reached from station to courts, out beyond the 
]\IcKinley cottage, and stretched on the other side to the gates of 
West Lawn Cemetery. 

At 1.45 o'clock on Thursday the final services for the dead Presi- 
dent were begun in the First Methodist Church of Canton. A great 
crowd of former army comrades, political and official associates, and 
distinguished men from every part of America followed the body 
from his home to the church. 

Becoming Simplicity. — The services were simple. The strains 
of Beethovan's funeral march were followed by the singing of an 
anthem by a quartette. The Eev. 0. B. Milligan prayed. The Nine- 
tieth Psalm was read by Eev. John A. Hall, of the Trinity Lutheran 
Church, and a portion of the first chapter of the First Corinthians 
by the Eev. E. P. Herbruck, of the Trinity Eeformed Church. After 
the President's favorite hymn, "Lead, Kindly Light," had been sung, 
Dr. C. E. Manchester delivered a memorial address. 

The People Believed in Him. — He said that it was characteristic 
of our beloved President that men met him only to love him. "They 



American History. 211 

might indeed differ with liim, but in the presence of sucli dignity 
of character and grace of manner none could fail to love the man. 
The people confided in him, believed in him. It was said of Lincoln 
that probabl}' no man since the days of Washington was ever so deeply 
embedded and enshrined in the hearts of the people, but it is true of 
McKinley in a larger sense. Industrial and social conditions are such 
that he was, even more than his predecessors, the friend of the whole 
people." 

Grief of Italian Workingmen. — Dr. Manchester told of a touch- 
ing scene that was enacted in that church on the Sunday night previ- 
ous. "The services had closed. The worshippers were gone to their 
homes. Only a few lingered to discuss the sad event that brings us 
together to-day. Three men in working garb, of a foreign race and 
unfamiliar tongue, entered the room. They approached the altar, 
kneeling before it and before his picture. Their lips moved as if in 
prayer, while tears furrowed their cheeks. They may have been think- 
ing of their own King Humbert and of his untimely death. Their 
emotion was eloquent beyond speech, and it bore testimony to their 
appreciation of manly friendship and of honest worth." 

Continuing, he said: 

"Not only was our President brave, heroic and honest; he was 
as gallant a knight as ever rode the lists for his ladylove in the days 
when knighthood was in flower. It is but a few weeks since the 
nation looked on with tear-dimmed eyes as it saw with what tender 
conjugal devotion he sat at the bedside of his beloved wife, when all 
feared that a fatal illness was upon her. No public clamor that he 
might show himself to the populace, no demand of social function 
was sufficient to draw the lover from the bedside of his wife. He 
watched and waited while we all prayed — and she lived. 

"This sweet and tender story all the world knows, and the world 
knows that his whole life has run in this one groove of love. It was 
a strong arm that she leaned upon, and it never failed her. Her smile 



212 Memorial Volume of 

was more to him than the plaudits of the multitude, and for her 
greeting his acknowledgments of them must wait. After receiving 
the fatal wound, his first thought was that the terrible news might 
be broken gentl}^ to her. Ma}- God in this deep hour of sorrow comfort 
her. May His grace be greater than her anguish. May the widow's 
God be her God. 

"Another beauty in the character of our President, that was a 
chaplet of grace about his neck, was that he was a Christian. In the 
broadest, noblest sense of the word that was true. His confidence in 
God was strong and unwavering. It held him steady in many a storm.'' 

After speaking of the tragic cause of his death, he said : 

"In the midst of our sorrow we have much to console us. He 
lived to see his nation greater than ever before. All sectional lines 
are blotted out. There is no South, no Xorth, no East, no West. 
Washington saw the beginning of our national life. Lincoln passed 
through the night of our history and saw the dawn. McKinley 
beheld his country in the splendor of its noon. Truly he died in the 
fullness of his fame. 

"I do not ask you in the heat of public address, but in the calm 
moments of mature reflection, what other man ever had such high 
honors bestowed upon him, and by so many people? What pageant 
has equalled this that we look upon to-day? We gave him to the 
nation but a little more than four years ago. He went out with the 
light of the morning upon his brow, but with his task set, and the 
purpose to complete it. We take him back a mighty conqueror." 

At the conclusion of the address, Bishop Joyce, of Minneapolis, 
prayed, and the hymn, "Xearer, My God, to Thee," was sung by the 
entire congregation, after which the benediction was pronounced by 
monseignor T. P. Thorpe, of Cleveland. 

There was a moment's silence, and then the body-bearers lifted 
their sad burden and bore it tenderly down the aisle. As they appeared 
at the door, the great crowd outside, uncovered, stood in silence while 



American History. 213 

tHe funeral procession formed. It was a great parade of military, but 
it was intensely solemn. Slowly through the streets the solemn cortege 
moved to the sound of the dead march, while a pall of grief seemed 
to settle upon the vast throng through which it passed. 

The Last Rest. — It was after three o'clock when the procession 
reached the vault in Westlawn Cemetery. On all sides of the vault 
were laid the tributes of flowers which had been sent by men and the 
rulers of almost every nation of the globe. The casket was carried 
within, and President Eoosevelt and his Cabinet and others grouped 
themselves about the door. A Knights Templar quartette sang, and 
Bishop Joyce prayed. There was a sound of ''taps," and the great 
doors closed amid the strains of "ISTearer, My God, to Thee" and the 
sobbinsr of men and women. It was the end. 



214 Memorial Volume oe 

XXII. 
A MARVELOUS TRIBUTE. 

At the moment the casket was placed in the vault an honor was 
paid to the memory of the dead President such as was never paid 
before to any man in the history of the world. At that instant, by 
preconcerted arrangement, all America stood still. 

A Solemn Hush.— All the great activities of American life paused 
in a solemn hush. Wheels ceased to turn. The railway trains speed- 
ing across the country were arrested in their flight. The screws of I 
great steamships ceased to turn ; the murmur and clang of the trolley 
car was hushed. Even the cabmen on the street all stopped ; and for 
one, two, three, four, five minutes scarcely a sound was heard except 
the subdued notes of the hymn that had been sung so often during 
the week, while millions of people stood with uncovered and bowed 
heads, thinking of him whom they loved. It was perhaps the most 
impressive incident ever witnessed by man. 

Pulseless Cables. — The entire telegraph system of the country 
was hushed, and in all the huge network of wires from one end of the 
land to the other there was not a single tick. Even the great ocean cables 
were pulseless. In the Western Union Chicago office the hundreds of 
operators all arose at their desks and joined with deep feeling in the 
President's hymn, "Nearer, My God, to Thee." The same hymn was 
sung in New York City by the gathered crews of steamships and rail- 
way trains. There, the policemen were lined up, and with uncov- 
ered heads followed their sergeant in repeating the words of the 
Lord's Prayer. Ten thousand men, women and children massed in 
Herald Square listened for ten minutes to the tolling of the bells, 
and for half that time the place was as silent as a country churchyard. 
The clang of the trolley gong was missing. Some magic spell all in 
a moment had quieted the ceaseless whir of the surface car and the 



American History. 215 

rattle and din of the elevated trains. It was as though the hand of 
death itself had suddenly clutched the throbbing heart of the mighty 
city and stilled its beating pulse. 

The same scenes were repeated in a lesser degree in all the cities 
of the land. In Philadelphia the old Liberty Bell tolled out its 
solemn requiem. In Jersey City seven hundred Italians belonging 
to uniformed organizations participated in a memorial parade. At 
the head of the procession four men bore a floral temple of fame, in 
which, in flowers, was the word, "McKinley." Following this was 
a band, and then a heavily draped hearse, inside of which was a hand- 
some casket, flag-draped. The paraders attended divine services after 
which all attended a public meeting, at which eulogistic addresses 
were made in Italian. 

All the World Murmurs 'Tlest." — '"^"hen murdered Csesar was 
buried," said the ISTew York Journal, "only the people of a single 
city knew what was happening. When Washington was laid to rest 
the toiling messengers were still galloping over muddy roads with 
the direful news of his death. The people of the United States were 
mourners at the tomb of Lincoln, but there was no cable to bring 
them into communication with sympathic hearts in Europe. But now 
the whole earth quivers with a single emotion. A shot was fired in 
Buffalo, and, as if by an electric impulse, flags dropped to half-mast 
by the Ganges, the Volga and the Nile. The captive Filipino chief- 
tain laid his tribute of homage on the tomb of a magnanimous con- 
queror. Boer and Briton Joined in sorrow for the distant ruler who 
had sympathized with the sufferings of both. All the world murmurs 
to-day : 'Rest in Peace.' And the American people — his own people — 
to whom he gave his love and his life, echo, reverently : 'Rest.' " 

In Westminster Abbey. — In London, memorial services, held in 
Westminster Abbey by command of King Edward, were attended by 
throngs almost as deeply moved as those who filled our own churches. 
A most impressive moment of the service was a pause for silent 



216 Memorial Volume of 

prayer in behalf of the widow and family of the President. As the 
great organ's note, like a deep sigh, faded into solemn silence, the 
last jarring clang of the chimes outdoors momentarily punctured the 
stillness, as though for a record of passing time. "Then a hush fell 
upon the densely thronged church, jyad for fully five minutes every 
head was bowed in silent prayer — hushed and silent as the unnum- 
bered dead who sleep beneath the Abbey stones. It was an awful, 
soul-stirring moment. One could not help recalling the scene five 
years ago, at St. Louis, when at the mention of the name of McKinley 
ten thousand men had cheered like half-demented savages for half an 
hour by the clock. Some of those present on that occasion were even 
now kneeling with bowed heads, their subdued attitude beneath the 
Abbey's towering roof being more expressive of genuine feeling than 
the wildest cheers and frantic flag-waving in that memorable yellow 
pine board convention hall." 

The Westminster Gazette said: "To us in this country the loss 
of President McKinley is a family bereavement. We have had our 
differences with the American people. We know full well how more true 
it becomes every day that they are our keenest and most dangerous 
outstanding fact that they are our next of kin. We are linked by 
trade competitors, but above and beyond the conflict of competition is 
the common ties that exist nowhere except with the United States. 
Just as Queen Victoria was sincerely mourned on the other side of the 
Atlantic, so now we claim a special right to share the sorrow and indig- 
nation which the American feels at the death of its President." 

In Paris there was a great crush in the effort of the populace 
to reach the Church of the Holy Trinity, where a distinguished 
assemblage was gathered to honor the memory of our dead. 

The Paris Gaulois said : "The death of President McKinley will 
have a greater reverberation throughout Europe than that of Garfield, 
Lincoln or Carnot." 

Salutes on Distant Seas.— The warships of Great Britain and 
Germany throughout the world joined in the salute due to the head 



American History. 217 

of our stricken Kepublic. In every capital of Europe and in nearly 
every civilized country in the world there were displayed symbols of 
grief. An Austrian paper said : "The ocean is not wide enough to 
hold all the sympathy that is streaming from the Old to the New." 

In far-away India commerce was stopped, batteries were fired, 
■flags were half-masted, and there was general mourning. Solemn, 
weeping crowds assembled in Berlin, Brussels, Dresden, Vienna, 
Copenhagen Cologne, Eio Janeiro, Kingston, Pekin, Constantinople, 
St. Petersburg, Pome, Manila, San Juan, Havana, almost every city 
of consequence in the world, and took part in the most impressive 
memorial services ever rendered in honor of any dead. 

Among the incidents of the day in America none perhaps was 
more touching or more significant than the tribute which came from 
the heart of a little Atlanta girl. The story, as told by the Consti- 
tution, forms a fitting close for this chapter: 

"Just about a half an hour before the shadows of twilight com- 
menced to shroud the silent tombs of Oakland Cemetery, a minister 
of one of Atlanta's churches had occasion to pass the enclosure of this 
city of the dead. 

"As he reached the main entrance, on Hunter street, the clergy- 
man's attention was drawn to a little girl of probably not more thaii 
nine years, who was standing outside the gate. Although a tired look, 
as though from some long vigil, was to be plainly seen upon the 
child's face, there was an eager, expectant look in her bright eyes as 
they were directed inquiringly toward his. 

" 'Please, sir,' she asked of the clergyman, as she saw his kindly 
faced turned toward her, 'can you tell me how long it will be until the 
funeral comes ?' 

" 'What funeral, my dear ?' he answered, thinking it might be 
that of some friend or relative of hers. 

"The minister was scarcely prepared for the reply the little girl 
made, for, with the sweet and absolute simplicity of childhood she 
answered : 



318 Memorial Volume op 

"*I mean our President's funeral. Can't you tell me, sir, how 
long it will be until it comes ?' 

"The clergyman was too bewildered for a moment by the reply 
of the child to speak, and when a full realization of her meaning did 
dawn upon him it was a strange sort of choking in his throat that 
kept him from finding speech for a good many more than one moment. 

"Not waiting for a reply, the little lass continued : 

" ^I've been waiting here such a long time — I know it must be 
three hours — and I am so tired I don't know what to do. I brought 
these to put on his grave, and I just can't leave until they come. 
Nobody at home knew I was coming, and they'll be uneasy about me 
if the funeral don't come soon, so I can get home before dark." 

"As she spoke she held up for the clergyman's inspection a fast 
wilting bunch of blossoms — a pitiful little fading bunch, but the best 
that she could find, and shaped into the only fashion her tiny hands 
could devise. She had gathered them herself and brought them to 
place them as her offering at the tomb of the nation's martyr. 

"Brushing a tear from his cheek, the clergyman placed his arm 
about the child and drew her tenderly toward him. There was a 
moment of silence, and then he told her of the burial that had occurred 
hours before in the far away Ohio city. 

"She could not conceal the disappointment she felt, and, as there 
came a pause, she slowly replied : 'I'm sorry I didn't get to put them 
on his grave. I wanted to — ^but I guess I'll go home.' 

" 'Little one,' he said, as they started together toward the child's 
home, 'you have this day offered to the memory of a great man the best, 
the truest tribute that could be paid.' 

"When they reached the home of the child and she had left him 
with a 'Thank you, sir, for bringing me home,' the man of God stood 
for a moment in silence, then slowly resumed the journey that had 
been so strangely interrupted. In his hand he held a tiny blossom, 
one of those that had faded from 'waiting for them to come.' " 



Amhrican History. 219 

XXIII. 

PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS. 

After Mr. McKinley's election to the Presidency, Mr. Charles 
M. Pepper, a well-known newspaper correspondent, was sent by the 
New York Herald to Canton, with instructions to remain until the 
President should leave for Washington to be inaugurated. This gave 
Mr. Pepper an opportunity to see ]\Ir. McKinley daily for nearly four 
months, and he has furnished the Christian Herald with some exceed- 
ingly interesting recollections of that memorable period. 

"I remember," he writes, "one evening in the library at Canton, 
when, quite unconsciously and unintentionally, he gave some of us a 
little talk on faith. It was at the hour when he was in the habit of see- 
ing those who were privileged to call on him, and in whose judgment 
he could conj&de and talk freely. Some of the persons present had 
intimated their disbelief in the efficacy of faith and trust. Without 
saying a word on the incident which had caused the discussion, and 
without giving any opinion, Major McKinley related a number of 
instances which had come under his personal attention, and which 
showed the comfort of faith and of prayer. It was all done so gently 
and without any intention of rebuke, but that little talk made clear his 
own supreme faith. 

"The uncertainties of power and position also once formed the 
text for a little sermon. One evening, in driving around Canton just 
at dusk, I noticed a funeral taking place at the County Infirmary, 
or poorhouse. The same evening, some chance observation regarding 
the incident was made in Major McKinley's library, and one of those 
present began to wonder on the circumstances which had caused the 
funeral. Major McKinley himself told them. A once wealthy and 
prominent citizen, through a series of reverses, had become an inmate 



220 Memorial Volume of 

of the poorhouse. Though Major McKinle}^ did not himself state it, 
I learned afterwards that it was through the kindness of himself and 
other friends that the last months of this man's life had been made 
comfortable. But the moral he drew was that worldly prosperity was 
fleeting, and that it was during the reverses that the true qualities 
of manhood were shown. 

On another evening there were with Mr. ]\IcKinley three or four 
United States Senators, half a dozen Representatives in Congress, 
two or three governors, and several party leaders, when a poor woman, 
with her daughter, asked an interview. She had with her a number 
of papers, and she told the secretary that it was a pension case. The 
President-elect saw her at once. "He looked over the papers," says 
Mr. Pepper, "explained very patiently how the case would have to be 
sent to the Pension Office in Washington, and what course it would 
have to follow there. He also promised her that it should receive 
prompt attention. Whether it would be allowed or not, of course he 
could not say, but he called a stenographer and dictated a letter which 
at least would insure for it an early hearing. All this took ten or 
fifteen minutes, but Major McKinley manifested no annoyance, and 
by his own patient forbearance he rebuked the distinguished visitors 
who showed signs of impatience because their business was not given 
preference over that of the poor woman with the pension case." 

Mr. Pepper says that nothing in all the world could have afforded 
Mr. McKinley such gratification at his first inauguration as the 
presence of the two persons he most loved of all human beings. 
These were his wife and his mother. During the period between 
election and inauguration at times in Canton there would be some 
uncertainty about the health of one or the other, and those were the 
only periods when Major McKinley showed depression. 

After he became President, Mr. Pepper saw him occasionally at 
the White House, and found him always with the same serene faith 
and the same world-wide charity. Human suffering anywhere appealed 



American History. 221 

to him. "The Cuban reconcentrados, the famine-stricken natives 
of India, or the starving wretches of China, all enlisted his sympathy, 
and I pleasantly recall the keen interest he showed in the relief 
measures of Dr. Klopscli and the aid which he gave to those measures." 

The correspondent last saw President McKinley a few weeks 
before his death in his home at Canton, spending an hour with him 
in the library, where, more than four years ago, so many interviews 
were held with him. He was full of life and vigor and hope. "He 
talked to me chiefly of measures of public policy, but throughout it 
all was the ringing note of faith which I have before remarked was 
the keynote of his character. The memory of that last talk will remain 
with me always." 

In a letter to the Manufacturers' Record, Senator J. L. 
McLaurin, of South Carolina, tells of an interview lie had with 
President McKinley one day during the early days of the Span- 
ish war. "One afternoon," he writes, "during the early days of 
the Spanish war. I called by appointment upon the Presi- 
dent. After my business was concluded we drifted into a long talk 
upon national affairs. We had already had several conversations upon 
the situation in the South, and he asked me a great many questions, 
which led to my giving him a full account of the difficulties under 
which we labored. I told him of the humiliation and misgovernment, 
the pride and patriotism of a great people, how we misunderstood the 
Xorth, and how the Xorth misunderstood us. He spoke beautifully 
and tenderly of the Southern people, and of how he intended to use 
the power and influence of his great office to reunite our country. He 
said that he had appointed General Lee, and had promised to appoint 
General M. C. Butler to a place in the army, and intended to make 
no discrimination on account of politics or sections. 

"I can recall the words, but who can paint the earnestness and 
eloquence, as, raising one hand on high, he said : 'Senator, by the 
help of God, I propose to be the President of the whole country, the 



222 Memorial Volume or 

South as much as the Xorth, and before the end of my term the 
South will understand this.' 

"iSTo wonder, as a true Southern man, I loved and trusted Presi- 
dent McKinley. I stood by him in the Senate and elsewhere, and I 
thank God that I did. 

"Patriotic in purpose and pure in heart, his noble soul is now 
with Him whom the hate of man nailed to the cross. Like Lincoln, 
who saved the country, McKinley, who reunited it, dies a martyr to 
envy and hate." 

In an address to the school children, Congressman J. A. T. Hall, 
of Des Moines, Iowa, said that, during the interim between the blowing 
up of the "Maine" and the declaration of war against Spain, five 
Congressmen called upon the President with a view to inducing him 
to precipitate hostilities. He persisted that diplomacy should be used 
in the hope of averting a conflict, whereupon one of the Congressmen 
exclaimed : 

"Mr. President, the charge is often made that you are influenced 
by the big moneyed interests of this countr}-, and your attitude in this 
matter is such that I am forced to the conclusion that you are in reality 
their tool." 

The President was manifestly affected, but exhibited no anger 
as he replied, with a trace of pride : 

"My whole past life shall defend me against such a charge." 

Few stories that have been told about Mr. McKinley more beauti- 
fully illustrate the tender side of his character, his spirit of forgive- 
ness, charity and brotherly love, than one which a watchman of one 
of the public buildings in Washington related to a correspondent of 
the Charlestown (W. Va.) Gazette. 

Though now growing old and somewhat broken by misfortune, 
he was an editor of prominence and power years ago in the dis- 
trict that McKinley represented in Congress. "He was at the head 
of a Republican paper," says the correspondent, "but suspecting 



American History. 223 

McKinley of instigating ti libel suit against him, he fought his party's 
choice for Congress with all his strength and power at his command. 
For years he held McKinley a bitter enemy, and did his utmost to pre- 
vent his rising. 

"Then it was disclosed that McKinley had no part in the libel 
suit, and had never attempted to wrong the man who once fought him 
so fiercely. The editor, full of remorse, went to Mr. McKinley and 
begged forgiveness. Mr. McKinley forgave not in word only, as time 
was to show. 

"The editor met reverses. His paper and all that was his were 
swept away, and as a last resort he came to Washington and went to 
work as a laborer. He is a religious man and attended the late 
President's church. 

"It was during the first administration of President McKinley 
that the editor became the laborer. The President always recognized 
him at church with a nod and a smile. Later the President made 
inquiries, learned of the man's position, and sent word for him to 
visit the White House. 

"But the laborer's pride forbade him. 'No,' he stubbornly told 
his friends, 'McKinley's up and I am down now. He was always 
good to me, and I treated him shabbily. I'll not seek more favors.' 
The laborer stayed away. 

"His impulses, however, led him to attend the last New Year's 
reception. McKinley recognized him at once, and extended both 
hands. The line was delayed while the President of the United 
States urged a humble citizen to visit him, and then the laborer went 
away proud, but troubled. 

" 'You see,' he explained to his friends, 'it's not only that I 
acted wrong years ago ; it's this — I'm not with McKinley now. I am 
for free silver. I have no right to accept favors from him.' 

"The laborer was getting old. His work was growing too heavy 
a burden. Many friends pressed him to visit the President, and so, 
at last, he went. 



234 Memorial Volume of 

"Just what happened there has not been told. But one thing is 
certain — the ex-editor ceased to be a laborer from that day. He has a 
comfortable berth for his declining years. 

"And during the services held for two weeks past at the Metro- 
politan Church one bowed, gray-haired man near the Tresident's pew' 
has sent many a fervent prayer for the martyr, and has wept many 
bitter tears for the man he once fought so fiercely." 

Welcome of the "West. — During his recent tour across the conti- 
nent there was nothing which Mr. McKinley enjoyed more than the 
familiar greetings of uncouth but sincere individuals who were always 
popphig up in unexpected places. 

" 'McKinley, you are all right, old boy. I am glad you have come, 
and blow me full of holes if I don't hope you will come again.' This," 
wrote a Cabinet officer, "was the welcome of the West to the President 
of the United States." He was an ex-roughridcr who had climbed upon 
the rear platform of the car. As he uttered the good wishes Mr. 
McKinley grasped his hand, smiled and thanked him. This was at 
Bowie, Arizona. Another cow-puncher in the crowd at the station 
cried : "Glad to see you. Bill, but I'll be hanged if you ain't got a soft 
snap of a job," running his eyes significantly along the length of the 
Pullman train as he spoke. 

Always Happy. — "The President," says the same writer, "was 
always considerate, always good-natured, always happy. He rises each 
morning apparently refreshed, facing life with a smiling face. I think 
this is one of the chief secrets of the President's success. His disposi- 
tion is naturally kind. He wants to make everyone around him happy." 

Few stories that have been told about the late President give a 
better insight into his character than the account which the boy 
reporter of the New York World gave, of a visit which he made to Mr. 
McKinlcy's home at Canton in the fall of 1896. It has been often 
repeated, but I feel that this chapter would hardly be complete with- 
out it. 



American History. 235 

Interviewed by a Boy Reporter. — "I have been down to Ohio to 
see i\Ir. McKinley, the big Eepuljlican," he wrote. "As I have visited 
manj" men who are great, and as Mr. McKinlej seems to be the great- 
est of all at present, I wanted to see him bad, so I took a call on him at 
Canton, Ohio, the town he lives in. 

"When a man gets big like him he ought to be able to tell boys how 
to become great too, so I thought it would pay me to go down there and 
ask of him some advice on how a young boy can start in life and become 
a great man. 

"Canton isn't as big a town as jSTew York, and everybody in the 
place knows Mr. McKinley and the family. 

"It isn't easy to ask Major i\IcKinley things for the newspapers. 
I knew that before I started, so I found Mr. Boyle, his Private Secre- 
tary, and told him I was the boy reporter for the Sunday World, and 
all the boys wanted to hear about Mr. McKinley, and would he please 
fix it so I could see him. ]\Ir. Boyle was a newspaper man and he knew 
all about it, so I told him I didn't want to talk politics, and that I 
wanted to ask Mr. McKinley how I or other boys could get to be as 
famous as he was. 

"Then Mr. Boyle laughed, and said that Major McKinley was a 
very busy man all the time, but as he liked boys awful well, I might 
call around to his house and see him in the morning. As I had come 
all the way from JSTew York and wanted to do so, so much. 

"Then I was glad. So when morning came I got up early and 
started for McKinley's house, one thing struck me awfully funny on 
the road there, it was that they were painting all the telegraph poles, 
and everything else in the town, white and blue; they seemed tickled 
about something by the way they were slapping the paint all over the 
street, and T guess paint is cheap in Ohio, so I asked a man what they 
were painting up for, and he said they're getting ready to celebrate 
McKinley's nomination. 

"So I knew everybody in Canton liked the big Eepublican, and I 

15 



226 Memorial Volume of 

hurried on. His house is a pretty one, made of wood and painted white, 
on a fine broad street, and there wasn't any basements or steps, like 
we see in New. York houses. 

"It's a fine place to live in, and I'd like to live there myself. 

"I knew right away that it was where Mr. McKinley and his wife, 
Mrs. McKinley, lived, for Mr. Boyle had told me what it looked like ; 
he said there were two big urns painted white standing in the big lawn 
in front of the house. They weren't anything but two big flower-pots, 
as big as I am. 

"I went up to the door and pressed the button, and inquired as to 
see Mr. McKinley. Its an electric bell, and I suppose it will be worn 
out soon, if there's many callers come every day as come and wanted to 
see him as while I was there. 

"A young man who was another private secretary came to the door. 
Major McKinley has two private secretaries. 

" 'Come right in,' says he, and he took my card, and went into a 
room right by the door. I asked for Mr. Boyle, but the young man took 
my card to a large man, in the front room, and when he came out and 
said, 'step right in here and sit down,' I walked in, and there was a big 
man sitting in the corner. I knew him right off as soon as I seen him, 
and I sat there in a rocking chair, sizing him up and the room I was in. 

"It was Major McKinley. 

Mr. McKinley at Home. — "I seen he had a round head with not 
much hair on the top, and I knew it was him, because he looked like 
the pictures of Napoleon at the elevated stations, which the newspaper 
artists make him look like. 

"He wore eye-glasses and a black coat, and had awful big eye- 
brows, and he didn't look like as if he was in a great hurry, and I hoped 
he'd talk to me a good deal. 

"He was at a little desk looking over some letters. 

"I liked him right off, and then I looked at the room. It was his 
library and he uses it as his office, it is very large with plenty of book- 



AmEUICAN JHlSTOKY, 227 

shelves, which are full of his favorite authors, Grant, Lincoln and him- 
self. 

"Pictures were hanging on tlie walls of Grant, Lincoln, and a lot 
of other great men and also a large beautiful picture of his wife, Mrs. 
ilcKinley and himself. 

"Then I looked at Mr. McKinley again, and' I seemed to be getting 
almost afraid to talk to him for I thought he was such a big man, wise 
and great, but I thought to myself that there wasn't any use for me to 
come all the way from New York and not talk to him. 

"So I got my senses together and just then Mr. Boyle came down 
stairs and stepped over to the Major, and said right off that there was a 
boy there to see him. Mr. McKinley got right up from his chair and 
stared at me with a very pleasant smile on his face. 

" 'This is Harry Wilson,' said Mr. Boyle, 'who has come from 
New York to see you.' 

" 'I'm pleased to see you,' said Mr. McKinley, and he gave me his 
hand for to shake, and I liked him more than ever, because he acted as 
if he was real pleased to see me. 

" 'Sit down,' said he, and he pointed to my rocking chair, and then 
he sat down in front of me in one of them chairs that whirl around 
like the editor's chair. 

"And I said to him, 'Mr. McKinley I am more than pleased to 
meet you, as I think that not more than one of a thousand boys could 
see you and talk with you, and I'm proud.' 

"Then I told him at once what I had come for, because I didn't 
want to keep him from his work, writing letters and such things. 

Telling a Boy How to Become a Great Man. — " T\Ir, McKinley,' 
I said, 'I come to ask you if you would give me some advice as to how a 
young boy can start in life and become a great man ; I thought you 
could tell me.' 

"I wondered what he was going to say, as I've asked' a lot of big 
men, like Chauncey Depew and Alderman Muh, the same thing. He 



228 Memorial Volume op 

sat still for a moment, holding his eye-glasses with his right hand and 
pushing the black bead on the cord with his other hand. I saw he 
wears a gold ring on the left hand and a pair of great big cuff- 
buttons — not link buttons, like the swells wear ; I guess his wife must 
have given them to him. 

"He thought a long time and then talked very slowly, and his 
voice was deep. 

" 'Well,' he said, 'first a boy must be a good boy — honest, always 
do what is right, pay attention to what he is doing, and be a student ; 
he must go to school all he can, learn all his lessons, and he mustn't 
be afraid to study.' 

"Then I thought to myself what Mr. McKinley had said was per- 
fectly right; then I paused for a moment, thinking what I should 
ask him next. I had never been far outside of New York before, and 
Canton looked like a very small town to me, and I wondered if it was 
a good place to make smart men in. 

" 'Mr. McKinley,' I said, 'will you please tell me do you think a 
boy has as much chance to study and make a great man out of himself 
in a small place like this as the boys in great cities like New York 
have ?' 

"That made him smile, but he said right off: 'A boy can make 
anything out of himself that he pleases, and he has just as much 
chance to do it in the country as in the city; there are good colleges 
in small places, just the same as in New York, and a boy, if he wants 
to, can make what he will out of himself.' 

"He was beginning to get warmed up and was beginning to talk 
fast. He went on: 

" 'It don't make much difference where it is or how great the part 
he plays, but it's the way he plays it. The other night I saw a play at 
the theatre called "The Rivals." Mr. Jefferson, and Mr. Drew, and 
Mrs. Drew, and Mrs. Tabor, and Mr. Crane, and Goodwin, the 
Holland brothers and Francis Wilson played the parts. Every one 



American History. 229 

of them was great and used to be stars, but they were content to take 
some parts that were very small in "The Eivals ;" but they played them 
just as well as if they had been big. 

" 'That is the way with boys and men ; it isn't so much to be great 
as to do whatever you have to do well — that is being great.' 

"I began to feel as if I was hearing a sermon, and the Major 
McKinley looked very sober. 

"Then he got in a good word for Canton. 'It isn't such a small 
place/ he said, 'and it's a very nice town to live in. Some of the best 
farms are out this way. Before you go back to New York you had 
better take a look around.' 

"But I wasn't through with him yet. I said: 'Mr. McKinley, 
would you please be so kind as to tell me when a boy should go into 
politics ?' 

A Glimpse of Mrs. McKinley. — "Then he laughed again and 
looked at his secretary, Mr. Boyle, who looks a good deal like Mr 
McKinley. Mr. Boyle was going to say something, when Mr. McKin- 
ley suddenly sprang from his chair into the hall and came in in a few 
moments with a lady leaning on his arm. 

"It was Mrs. McKinley, and she was very sweet looking, and I 
was delighted to see her, and I think she would make folks com- 
fortable if she lived in the White House in Washington. 

"Mr. McKinley is very fond of her, I am sure, and he escorted 
her to the carriage, and she was going out for a morning ride. 

"Then he came back and sat down with a smile on his face. 
When he was about to begin to talk to me he was called away again, 
and stayed away a few moments and then came in again and sat down 
and then laughed, and began to ask me questions before I could ask 
him some more. 

" 'How old are you ? How long have you been working ?' I 
then told him, and he wanted to know how long I had been reporting. 
I said, 'Eight months.' 



230 Memorial Volume op 

"He then said to me : 'Harry, I believe you must have a great deal 
of good advice by this time/ and the Major laughed. So did all the 
rest in the room. 

"I said : 'If I could follow all I've been told I'd be a great man 
pretty quick.' 

A Boy's Mother. — "Mr. McKinley is very fond of his mother, 
who is eighty-seven years old and lives near him, so I said: 'Can a 
boy neglect his mother and get along and be great, Mr. McKinley?' 

"He looked very grave and sad, and then said: 

" 'Harry, a boy should always bo good to his mother and do every- 
thing in the world he can and love her. He must comfort her, be kind 
and gentle to her, and not only do all he can to make her happy, but 
he should make opportunities to try and do everything he can do.' 

"That's just the Major McKinley's words, because I wrote them 
down when I came out of the home. 

" 'A boy cannot expect to succeed if he isn't good to his mother,' 
the Major says. 'A boy should do all the work for her, because when 
the time comes that she has got to leave for a greater world than this, 
and if he has done what is right towards her all the time, then when 
the time comes for her to go he will never regret the good he has done 
towards her.' 

"Then I said : 'I have done everything in the world I can do for 
my mother,' and then he said : 

" 'That's right, Harry ; do all you can at all times.' 

"Then I stopped for a moment and said: 'If every boy would 
follow the advice which you have given me he never will feel sorry for 
the good work he has done for her when the end comes.' 

"Then I stopped a moment and thought that Mr. McKinley 
hadn't told me when a boy should go into politics, and I said : 

" 'Mr. McKiulej', will you tell me when a boy ought to study 
politics ?' 

"He then stopped a moment and then said to me : 



American History. 231 

" 'Harry, first a boy should study the histon- of his country, and 
learn all the political history of the country. He should learn what 
the leaders have done for their country, so that when the time comes 
for him to vote he will be able to do so intelligently.' 

'•Then some more people came in to see him, and the Major 
3IcKinley went out into the hall again, and I knew he was in a hurry, 
so I said that I wished to ask one more thing. I remember I 
had nearly forgotten one of the most important questions. 

"1 then said, after he had returned from outside of the hall : 

'' Olr. McKinley, I have just one more question, and it is an 
important one.' I then said: ''Would you tell me how you earned 
your first dollar?' 

"He sank back in his chair and looked as if that wasn't what he 
expected me to ask him; then he put his hand up to the side of his 
head, as if to recall the years which had passed by, and then, with a 
smile, said : 

" 'Eeally, I can't recall the first dollar that I earned.' He keeped 
on thinking, and I tried to make him think a little harder. 

"Then I said : 'Did you have to saw wood, did you have to drive 
oxen all day long, or did you have to work in the field all day ? Can't 
you remember what you used to do to earn money ?' 

"He then said to me : ^Wliy, Harry, I did anything a boy would 
do around the house. "When I was a boy money was very scarce, and 
you had to work hard for what little money you got. But I can't 
remember the first dollar. You have to ask me something easy.' 

" 'What kind of books should a boy who wants to be great read ?' 

"' 'Ah I now I have to refer you to my private secretary ; he has a 
lecture which he speaks on the stage that tells all that and much 
more.' 

"So then I knew my talk was over with him. I felt xery sorry 
to say good-bye, but I said: 

" '^Ir. !McKinley, I want to thank you, for it was very good in 
you to stop to talk to a boy, and I am very grateful.' 



232 Memorial Volume of 

"'And I am very glad that you came to see me,' says he. 'I'm 
always glad to talk with boys. I like them and like to be with them. 
What is there in all the world nicer than a boy, except a sweet young 
girl ? Come again, Harry, and I hope you'll have the best of luck and 
do some good in the world with your work. Send me a paper.' 

"Then we shook hands again, and Mr. Boyle went out on the 
porch with me, and there was a lot of big men — politicians, I guess — 
and I think Mr. McKinley was very nice to talk to me and keep them 
waiting so long. 

"I guess all the boys who knows Mr. McKinley like Mr. McKin- 
ley as well as he likes them, because the boys of Canton^ Ohio, have 
already formed a drum corps. It's the first campaign club in the 
country, and the boys are very proud of it. I'd join if I lived in 
Canton. The boys all wear white suits and drill, and are going to 
march for McKinley." 



American History. 233 

XXIV. 
WHAT THE WORLD THOUGHT OF HIM. 

While this sketch was being prepared the author wrote to a 
number of eminent men throughout the world, asking for a word of 
tribute to the memor}^ of the dead President. To this request there 
was a most cordial response, and it is a pleasure to present in this clos- 
ing chapter some valuable estimates prepared especially for this 
volume, along with other choice tributes which were spoken on the plat- 
form or have appeared in the public prints. 

President Roosevelt. — "President McKinley crowned a life of 
largest love for his fellowmen, of most earnest endeavor for their wel- 
fare, by a death of Christian fortitude ; and both the way in which he 
lived his life and the way in which, in the supreme hour of trial, he 
met his death, will remain forever a precious heritage of our people." 

President Diaz (Mexico). — "I have been deeply shocked by this 
horrible crime, which has not even the excuse that the anarchist is 
persecuted in the United States, since, as is well known, freedom and 
tolerance are there extended to him. Nor has it the excuse that Presi- 
dent McKinley was a ruler of exclusive or aristocratic tendencies, for 
he was by reason of his position as a popular ruler and his own per- 
sonal feelings, sympathies and habits a good friend of the people, a 
genuine democrat in the best sense of the word, so that this crime was 
as useless and unprovoked as it is abominable in every respect. With 
regard to Mexico, President McKinley had ever evidenced such 
friendly sentiments that his death will be mourned in this country 
hardly less keenly than in the United States ; for myself, it is a loss 
of a warm personal friend." 

Cardinal Gibbons. — "Few Presidents were better equipped than 
Mr. McKinley for the exalted position which he filled. He was thor- 



234 Memorial Volume of 

oiighly conversant with the duties of his office, and could enter into 
its most minute details. His characteristic virtues were courtesy and 
politeness, patience and forbearance and masterly self-control under 
very trying circumstances. 

"The domestic virtues of llr. McKinley were worthy of all praise. 
He was a model husband. Amid the pressing and engrossing duties 
of his oflficial life he would from time to time snatch a few moments 
to devote to the invalid and loving partner of his joys and sorrows. 
Oh ! what a change has come over this afflicted woman ! Yesterday she 
was the first lady of the land. To-day she is a disconsolate and 
broken-hearted widow. Let us beseech Him who comforted the widow 
of Nain that He console this lady in her hour of desolation." 

Grover Cleveland. — "He passes from the public sight, not bearing 
the wreaths and garlands of his countrymen's approving acclaim, but 
amid the sobs and tears of a mourning nation. The whole nation 
loved their President. His kindly disposition and affectionate traits, 
his amiable consideration for all around him, will long be in the hearts 
of his countrymen. He loved them in return with such patriotism 
and unselfishness that in this hour of their grief and humiliation he 
would say to them, 'It is God's will, I am content. If there is a 
lesson in my life or death, let it be taught to those who live and have 
the destiny of their country in their keeping.' 

"First in my thoughts are the lessons to be learned from the 
career of William McKinley by the young men who make up the stu- 
dents to-day of our university. They are not obscure or difficult. 
The man who is universally mourned to-day was not deficient in edu- 
cation, but with all you will hear of his grand career, and his services 
to his country, you will not hear that what he accomplislied was due 
entirely to his education. He was an obedient and affectionate son, 
patriotic and faithful as a soldier, honest and upright as a citizen, 
tender and devoted as a husband, and truthful, generous, unselfish, 
moral and clean in every relation of life. He never thought any of 



American History, 235 

those things too weak for his manliness. Make no mistake. Here was 
a most distinguished man, a great man, a useful man, who became dis- 
tinguished, great and useful because he had, and retained unimpaired, 
qualities of heart which I fear university students sometimes feel like 
keeping in the background or abandoning. 

"There is a more serious lesson for all of us in the tragedy of our 
late President's death. If we are to escape further attacks upon our 
peace and security we must boldly and resolutely grapple with the 
monster of anarchy. It is not a thing that we can safely leave to be 
dealt with by party or partisanship. Xothing can guarantee us 
against its menace except the teaching and the practice of the best 
citizenship, the exposure of the ends and aims of the gospel of discon- 
tent and hatred of social order, and the brave enactment and execu- 
tion of repressive laws. 

"The uinversities and colleges cannot refuse to join in the battle 
against the tendencies of anarchy. Their help in discovering and 
warring against the relationship between the vicious councils and 
deeds of blood, and their steadying influence upon the elements of 
unrest, cannot faif to be of inestimable value. 

"By the memory of our martyred President, let us resolve to culti- 
vate and preserve the qualities that made him great and useful, and 
let us determine to meet the call of patriotic duty in every time of our 
country's danger and need." 

Archbishop Ireland.— "He was the noble citizen, proud of being 
a son of the people, brave in the battlefield amid his country's peril, 
zealous of its glory, unswervingly loyal to its honor and its interests. 
He was the typical President of the Republic. Large minded in his 
vision of the questions bearing upon the country's fortune, resolute in 
using the authority for what seemed to him its best weal, ready as the 
leader of a self-governing people to hearken to the popular voice and 
so far as principle and conscience permitted, to obey its behests, even 
to the sacrifice of his personal views. 



23 G Memorial Volume of 

"Political opponents differed from him in matters of pul)lic 
policy. They did not, they could not, mistrust his sincerity or his spirit 
of justice and patriotism. William McKinley is now dead, stricken 
down by the hand of a vile assassin. This makes the nation's sorrow 
doubly deep, for to sorrow is added shame — shame before her own eyes, 
before those of the world— that in this land of civil liberty there should 
have been found a man so overwhelmingly bad as to murder her Presi- 
dent; to murder him who served so well his fellow-men; to murder 
him who cherished so tenderly the free institutions of America ; shame 
that within her own borders the majesty of the republic should have 
been outraged and its name disgraced, the honor of humanity assailed 
and its most sacred rights imperiled." 

Andrew Carnegie. — "President McKinley passes into his place in 
history as one of the greatest rulers of men, through their affections, 
and beloved by his countrymen, and he stands forever with Lincoln 
and Garfield in the temple of martyrs, wearing like them the holy 
crown of sacrifice for the Republic. Our first duty in this crisis is to 
give to his successor under the Constitution our loyal support, in the 
hope and belief that power will impress him, as it may great 
characters known to history, and keep him in the path of his good and 
great predecessor." 

General John B. Gordon. — "It was my privilege to know William 
McKinley well for a quarter of a century. I knew him as a member 
of Congress, as Governor of a great State, and finally as the President 
of this great Republic. Through all these eventful years my personal 
relations to him were most cordial. In official conferences and in the 
freedom and abandon of private intercourse I learned to admire and 
to love him ; and now that the beatings of his great heart are stilled 
forever, I wish to tell you, my Southern countrymen, that no words 
of bitterness escaped his lips, and no sectional bigotry narrowed his 
vision or dwarfed his soul. As in death his faith in God placed him 
near his Divine Master's side, so in life his faith in his fellow 



American History. 237 

coimtrymcu lifted him far above the passions of the partisans to the 
high plixne of universal American brotherhood. 

"Is it any wonder then that such a man should be honored and 
loved as few men have ever been? Is it any wonder that this city 
should pay him, when living, the tribute of her respect, and, when 
dead, the tribute of her tears? It was here that he uttered those 
memorable words which thrilled through Southern hearts and homes 
as the heavenly message 'Peace on earth and good will toward men' 
rang through the Judcan hills. And, my countrymen, it was no 
thoughtless impulse that evoked this utterance. It was the sober 
expression of matured convictions. These words were not the plea of 
a political adventurer, seeking to capture votes by the demagogue's 
devices. He was the idol of a victorious political party, and the 
chosen executive of the proudest and freest government on earth. Is 
it any wonder that Confederates honor this knightly soldier, who, at 
the very zenith of political power, paid the loftiest possible tribute to 
former foes by invoking the power of the government to honor and pro- 
tect the graves of our immortal dead? Is it any wonder that as citi- 
zens of the reunited republic we applaud him as the exemplar of 
personal and social integrity, stainless in all relations, noble, generous 
and true? Peace to his honored ashes!" 

Attorney-General Griggs. — "Hear the concordance of praise that 
comes from every mind under the heavens ! 

"The East cries, 'We loved him, for he was of our stock. He 
thought with us. He brought us prosperity. We knew him; there- 
fore we loved him.' 

"The West : 'He was of us ; he was our perfect product. We 
knew him ; therefore we loved him.' 

"The Xorth cries : 'He fought for us ; he wrought for us. We 
understood him ; he was loyal and true ; therefore we loved him.' 

"The South cries : 'We loved him, for he was magnanimous and 
just to the South; in war an honorable foeman, in peace a friend and 
a brother.' 



238 Memorial Volume of 

"Gallant soldier, successful politician, wise legislator, powerful 
debater, matchless orator, courtly gentleman; courtly in manner 
because courteous in feeling. 

"If I were to seek a phrase to describe his public demeanor, I 
would say it was 'simple greatness.' 

"And he was no mere theoretical academic statesman, filled with 
great zeal and small sense. His mind and methods were of the prac- 
tical kind. Xo man ever appreciated more truly than he the real 
nature and quality of public sentiment, and none ever understood 
better how to mould and use it for the public good. He had faith in 
the common sense of the average citizens, and it was to their reason, 
not their passion or their prejudice, that he always made his appeals — 
and rarely in vain. 

"He was no trimmer, watching the shifting impulses of the popu- 
lace that he might trim his sails to the momentary gusts, but a great 
pilot scanning always the waters ahead to shun the rocks and whirl- 
pools and discover where the deep, safe channel of national progress 
lay. His pilot stars were truth and loyalty. 

"He was the sanest man and the one most free from hasty impulse 
and unreasoning prejudice that ever graced so high a station." 

Senator Hoar. — "Everything wakes this morning but the eyes 
for whose waking all mankind were praying. Nobody can put in 
words the national sorrow. I cannot put in words my own for the 
friend I loved, and who loved me. We shall think of the graver 
matters of state in due time. The courage and wisdom of the people 
will not fail. But to-day is given to pouring out the mighty love of 
the Iiepublic for the son best beloved, who so loved her and so well 
served her. 

"Thank God there is no division in the people to-day. Rich and 
poor. Democrat and Republican, Protestant and Catholic, native-born 
and foreign-born are mingling their sorrow. The coward blow that 
has stricken down one noble life has strengthened the life of the 
nation." 



American History. 239 

Governor Beckham (Kentucky). — "He was a great and good 
man. His private life was pure and stainless and worthy the emula- 
tion of any man. His public life, even to those who, like myself, 
differed from him in politics, was a model of patriotism and statesman- 
ship. Big-hearted and broad-minded, he never showed any of that 
bitterness and prejudice usually engendered by sectional warfare or 
political contests, and to-day, regardless of politics or creed, in the 
South as well as the Xorth, in the West as well as in the East, the 
heart of every good American citizen is bowed deep in grief over the 
death of our honored and beloved President." 

Governor Geer (Oregon). — "President McKinley stood in life, as 
he will forever stand in the history of his country, as a model product of 
American citizenship, and the high standard he reached and main- 
tained, both in his domestic life and in the public service, will be a 
guide for American homes and an inspiration in governmental affairs 
for generations to come. He had been constantly before the American 
people as their servant for more than twenty years, and his continually 
growing popularity only reached its summit on the day of liis death. 
The common people of the country have lost a lifelong friend and the 
spirit of government an able advocate and an unfaltering devotee." 

Governor Candler (Georgia) . — "The death of President McKinley 
is one of the greatest calamities which has ever befallen this country. 
There is not one of the 80,000,000 people of this great nation but has 
a personal grief because of his untimely taking off. He was a great 
and good man. 

"Great as a soldier, great as a citizen, great as a statesman, broad 
and liberal in all his views — the first of all the chief magistrates of 
this Eepublic for forty years to come among us with his heart in his 
hand — he did more to bridge the bloody chasm than all the men in the 
Republic. He was, therefore, more honored by the people of this sec- 
tion than any chief magistrate we have had for these forty years. 

"He was great intellectually and morally. In his domestic rela- 



240 Memorial Volume of 

tions he was great. The devotion he manifested to his stricken wife 
and his loving mother was sublime. The immortal ^Yashington was 
slandered and maligned; Jefferson was denounced; every President 
and ever}' candidate for President has been assailed with calumny 
except "William McKinley and the man who has run against him, 
William J. Bryan. They were not maligned. Xo voice was raised 
against their private lives, and they merited the treatment they thus 
received at the hands of their countrymen. President ilcKinley was 
as broad as the entire Eepublic." 

Governor Heard (Louisiana). — "The South has lost a friend 
and the country a great and good man. Xo President since the Civil 
War has done more to destroy the feeling resulting from that strife 
and unite the two sections in cordial friendship than President 
McKinley. He had great faith and confidence in the mass of the 
people, and it is dreadful to contemplate that he should lose his life 
while exhibiting that confidence by mingling with the people. His 
home life was beautiful, and his devotion to his invalid wife won for 
him the affectionate regard of all good people." 

Governor Toole (Montana) . — "History will accord the late Presi- 
dent a high niche in the galler}' of statesmen. His messages and 
public documents reflect a wide range of experience, a fluency of learn- 
ing and copiousness of thought. His broad, generous, hospitable 
nature invited confidence and suffered no oflicial distance of age or 
station to intervene between himself and his countrymen, who pro- 
foundly respected him. He was void of dogmatism and intolerance, 
as he was of indolence and selfishness. He leaves in the hearts of all 
who knew him, and the most with those who knew him best, profound 
regrets and tear-honored, hallowed memories." 

Governor Tyler (Virginia). — "His courtesy and kindness and his 
desire to help Virginia will not be forgotten. He was a man without 
bitterness, whose life was crowned by his effort to abolish sectional lines 
and whose death cements the completion of his cherished work. By 



Americax History. 241 

his wise and statesmanlike policy our people are brought closer 
together, and the flag of our common country is made dearer to the 
hearts of all." 

Governor Hunn (Delaware). — "The earthly career of William 
^IcKinley is closed, but in the loving memory of his country it has 
just begun. Men will strive to emulate him; he needs no special 
eulogy ; his life as a soldier, a statesman and a husband was conspicuous 
for bravery, high ability and loving devotion ; he was one of the ablest 
executives our great nation has ever had, a nobleman of nature, by 
nature richly endowed." 

Governor Jordan (New Hampshire) . — ''The people of Xew Hamp- 
shire know of William McKinley; of his soldier life, as he was fol- 
lowing and supporting the flag of his country on many battlefields; 
of his brilliant career in the popular branch of Congress; of his 
splendid record as the chief executive of his native State ; of his great 
work upon the platform in advocacy of home markets, home industries 
and home protection before he was twice triumphant^ elected to the 
highest oSice in the gift of any people. They know that as President 
of our Eepublic he has modestly, but yet bravely, met and wisely solved 
greater questions, national and international, than came to any other 
of our Presidents, save the immortal Lincoln; that his last message 
to the public, uttered upon the threshold of eternity, was one of peace, 
reciprocity, good faith and good- will; that he was the embodiment of 
all that was good and true in the home circle; the personification of 
honor and honesty in private and in public ; that he has so borne him- 
self in the affairs of men and nations as to unite all sections of his 
own loved country, make friends and admirers of all his people, and 
win the respect of all the great powers of the world." 

Senator Foster. — "I believe that President McKinley was a friend 

of the South. I do not think that in any sense of the word he was a 

sectional President. I believe especially in his last term of office he 

felt an interest in the development of the South and the upbuilding 

i6 



242 Memorial Volume of 

of its industries; and when in the last Congress sectional legislation 
was suggested against our people on political lines, as evidenced by the 
Crunipacker bill, he emphatically discouraged and opposed such a 
course on the part of his party, and the South can still feel grateful 
txD him for his patriotic stand. 

"During his visit to K'ew Orleans, by his courtly bearing, pleasing 
address and affable manners, he gained the good will and the good 
wishes of our entire population. The people of this State, in common 
with those of our whole country, mourn his untimely death in heart- 
felt grief.'' 

David B. Hill. — "Every good citizen laments the death of Presi- 
dent ]\IcKinley. Death by assassination is always terrible, and the 
country is to-day staggering under the severe shock. The President 
deserved to live. He was just entering upon a career of usefulness 
greater than he had ever known before. As an official he was distin- 
guished as safe and conservative, always ready to respect the popular 
will. He was a model citizen in all his relations in life. He cherished 
no animosities, and well understood and observed the amenities which 
should always accompany political differences in a free country like 
ours. He has shown his greatness and patriotism in his recent 
announcement that under no circumstances would he tolerate the sug- 
gestion of a third term for the Presidency, thereby loyally adhering 
to the best traditions of the Eepublic." 

Congressman Sulzer (New York). — "As a member of Congress I 
knew President William ^IcKinley well. He was one of the most 
amiable gentlemen I ever met in public life. It was very difficult for 
him to say no even to a political opponent. His kindly manner and 
genial, sunshiney disposition disarmed political criticism and turned 
foes into friends. He jsrobably had fewer political enemies than any 
other President of the United States. To see him was to admire him, 
to know him was to love him. 

"Although often compelled to differ with him in the performance 



American History. 243 

of my legislative duty, as I saw it, I always admired and respected him 
as a man and the Chief Executive of this great Republic. 

"He was a politician in the best sense of the term, and had states- 
manlike qualities of a very high order. He exemplified in his per- 
sonalit}^ more than any other man in jsublic life, the principles of his 
part}^, adhered to them most tenaciously, and his monument will rest 
on the great work he did in carrying them out and placing them on the 
statute books of his country. 

"He was farseeing, wise, brave, considerate and sagacious. He 
did things, and he always did them at the opportune time. He was 
probably the greatest opportunist this country has ever produced. 

"He was an absolutely honest man, a true and tried and trusted 
friend, a loving husband, a soldier, a diplomat, and a statesman. 

"His cruel, appalling and uncalled-for assassination made Chris- 
tendom mourn. 

"Impartial history will give him a high niche in its temple of 
fame, his works will live, and his virtues ever shine in the loyal hearts 
of his patriotic countrymen." 

Senator Dolliver (Iowa). — "A long acquaintance with the late 
President, in the intimacy of a personal friendship which ended only 
with his life, has always saved me from that error of judgment which 
has in some quarters underrated his abilities and underestimated the 
value of his public services, but standing here before yet the flowers, 
have withered which cast their faded beauty upon his grave, I declare 
my solemn belief that no achievement of his great career, no triumph 
of his speech will weigh so much for the welfare of the world as the 
everlasting ministry of the stainless life which he lived in the faith of 
the mother who taught him first to repeat the words of the Master:, 
Thy will be done.' " 

Senator Clay (Georgia). — "I shall never forget the impression' 
he made upon me when I first met him. He then steadily grew in 
my esteem, and I say that I loved him as a pure, good and just man. 



244 Memorial Volume of 

He was universally popular with both branches of Congress, regardless 
of politics, because he demonstrated to them all that he loved his fel- 
lowman. No man can be great unless he is good. Even his political 
enemies accorded to him the greatest integrity and the most scrupu- 
lous honor. 

"Go to those who know him best. They loved him, they honored 
him ; they believed he was entitled to every trust and every confidence. 
What higher tribute could be paid to his memory ? 

"I can never forget his love and affection for the American people. 
We all feel sad that he is gone; but, my friends his life and death 
teach us a lesson. His life had been as tender and as guileless as that 
of a child. His death was that of a saint." .... 

"President McKinley would have been great even if he had never 
been associated with the office of President of the United States, 
because he was pure and good and just. The loveliness of his domestic 
life has been the theme of every tongue. On all occasions and every- 
where he was ready to administer to his beloved wife. It was ever 
thus, and the bravest of men are always the tenderest men in their 
homes. Let us teach our sons and daughters to emulate his home life. 

"President McKinley illustrated in his public and private life 
his faith and love for Christianity. He loved little children, he loved 
his home, he loved humanity, he loved God and he practiced the teach- 
ings of the meek and lowly jSTazarene. He was great in his life, but 
surpassingly great in his death. Bowing to the decision of the Master, 
his noble spirit took its flight to a sweeter and better land." 

Senator Pettus (Alabama). — "It has been my good fortune to 
know every President of the United States from Andrew Jackson down 
to the present presiding officer — I have known them all, like a private 
citizen — but I say here to-day that unless General Jackson was so, I 
have never seen a man in the President's chair who conducted himself 
so graciously, so kindly, so politely, to every man of every class and 
description who had to come before him. He was a gracious, gentle. 



American History. 345 

kind man in all his relations of life, especially so in his personal asso- 
ciations. He was a good man; all his instincts were those of benefit 
to man. I really believe he loved his fellowmen, and according to his 
opinion tried to benefit them." 

John Wanamaker. — "I am speechless with sorrow that another 
American President must lie with Lincoln and Garfield in a martyr's 
grave. His vision of the glory of America in the near future, by the 
completion of the public measures of his administration outlined in 
his last public address at the Pan-American Exposition nine days 
ago, deepens the sorrow that will be universal that he is not to live 
to finish the great work in hand. I cannot think of any other event 
that could plunge the nation in such grief or touch the liberty-loving 
world so profoundly with regret as this sudden, uncalled-for sacrifice 
of our President." 

Governor Voorhees (New Jersey). — "A pure-minded man and 
noble patriot is dead, but the world is better because he has lived. 
The President's death is a great calamity, and the grief of his coun- 
trymen will be universal and sincere. He was a man of broad mind, 
and his love for his country was unbounded. The purity of his life 
and his able statesmanship will be held in the memory of his country- 
men for all time." 

Joseph H. Manley. — ''We shall now realize what a supremely 
good man was our beloved President, and appreciate how great is our 
loss. Every one feels that he increased the happiness of all mankind 
and added to the glory and advancement of all the world." 

Congressman Sperry (Connecticut). — "Great-hearted, noble- 
minded and loyal to his country, his death is a great blow, and we shall 
realize it more and more as the years roll on." 

Mayor Mims (Atlanta). — "Brightly shines the light that 
illumines the names of his predecessors; but forever resplendent in 

living letters will be the name of William McKinley His 

last visit to Atlanta was as the guest of the city, as President, to 



346 Memorial Volume of 

attend our notable Peace Jubilee. Perhaps even more than the peace we 
were called to celebrate was the actual peace message he declared 
in yonder capitol, when he pronounced the doonr of sectionalism 
throughout the country, when he declared that Confederate graves 
and cemeteries should have the same governmental care as others; 
then he made himself especially beloved, not only by every true South- 
ern man, but good men everywhere. Oh, there is the sentiment in all 
this too deep for utterance, for thus he touched the great warm beating 
heart of the South in its tenderest spot — the respect and care for their 
honored dead — but as the President, not of a section, but the whole 
people, a united people, and by this speech more united than ever 
before. Here was the exhibition of true greatness; nay, more, he 
restored back to the nation our true Southern soldiers as brigadiers 
in the army of the United States — Fitzhugh Lee and Joe Wheeler. 
They have proven to the country his patriotic wisdom. History will 
forever perpetuate his fame, unborn generations will call him blessed, 
and here on this spot, sacred above all others for the utterances he 
has given, let a fitting monument, pointing heavenward, be reared 
on which, in enduring letters, shall be inscribed the name of William 
McKinley." 

Senator Cockrell. — '"In all essential characteristics of the true 
American Christian citizen, soldier, statesman and official, President 
McKinley was the best and most illustrious exemplar of this genera- 
tion for the guidance of the people of all ages." 

Hon. Hoke Smith (Georgia). — Mr. McKinley rose from simple 
walks and through many public trusts to the highest office. His 
record will stand severest scrutiny. It shines with the noblest of 
human traits. 

"He loved with all the ardor of his nature his God, his country 
and his fellowmen. 

"We of this section owe him a special debt. It needed not Car- 
denas and Santiago to remove all bitterness from the Southern heart. 



American History. 247 

We had been at home in our father's house for thirty years, and we 
loved all its inmates; but we needed the great brain and warm heart 
and fervent words of this loyal lover of all States to free every 
thought of criticism; to show the American people the patriotism of 
their brethren. 

"His public services have been great; his private services not less 
so. In the home life must be preserved the safeguard of our country's 
future. What an example he has set ! What a standard he has raised ! 

"How thoughtful, how pure, how tender, as he fell back with the 
very wound that slew him, asking that the news be not exaggerated 
to the partner of his trials and his joys. 

"He had lived the life of an earnest professor of faith in Jesus 
Christ. The highest honors could not shake his faith, or move his 
trust or hopes. 

"To his fellowmen he did his greatest service as he died. The 
greatest of earthly rulers, he yielded without a murmur to the Heavenly 
Kuler. From his lofty elevation, from the office of Chief Magistrate 
over 80,000,000 people, his answer to the call was: 'It is God's 
way; His will, not ours, be done,' and then, with his last breath, he 
sang 'jSTearer, My God, to Thee.' 

"It was his last message to the American people and to the 
civilized world and it will be repeated and heard and known for years 
and years to come. His greatest message, his greatest service to his 
fellowmen, his country and his God. 

"He has given up the corruptible to put on incorruption. He 
has given up the mortal to put on immortality, and that which was 
written has been brought to pass, death is swallowed up in victory. 

"Thanks be to God, death had for him no sting, and even the 
grave was to him a victory." 

Judge Emory Speer (Georgia). — "Of the man himself it is freely 
conceded by those who were his foemen in war, and who are his oppo- 
nents in peace, that his is the highest type of the American citizen. In 



348 Memorial Volume of 

his personal characteristics, he is, of Washington, the noble and 
serene; of Madison, the persuasive and indefatigable; of Jackson, the 
fiery and fearless; of Lincoln, the mighty-souled and humane; of 
Grant, the stern and silent in battle, and the gentlest to the van- 
quished in victory; of Arthur, the exquisite charm of whose graceful 
and gentle manners will linger ever in the memory of those who 
knew him : of these illustrious Presidents, this unpretentious x\merican 
gentleman by all, save an occasional crafty and ungenerous partisan, 
is deemed the worthy and meritorious successor. . . . The admin- 
istration of William McKinley and its great achievements will receive 
proud recompense. He will live in history as the first President who 
directed the energies of this nation in a great and successful war 
beyond the seas. Greater civic renotvn may yet be his, but to my 
mind the crowning glory of his life will be found in those simple 
words of proffered kindly national recognition of the honor due the 
sacred ashes of his once incomparable foes." 

Ex-Congressman H. St. George Tucker. — "I served with Presi- 
dent McKinley in the House in the stormy Eeed Congress, when 
feeling between the opposing parties was intense, but Major McKinley, 
by his uniform courtesy and kindness of manner, was never the 
object of personal animosities. He was my personal friend, and I 
shall always retain with increasing pleasure the many evidences of 
his friendship and his kindness of heart." 

Senator Foraker. — "His fame will be chiefly associated with his 
conduct of the Spanish-American war, the freedom of Cuba, the 
acquisition of our insular territories and the solution of the many 
difficult and far-reaching problems arising therefrom. 

"He did not seek war ; on the contrary, he did all he could honor- 
ably to avert it ; but when it came he did not shrink from its require- 
ments. 

"He met them with a purpose unselfishly consecrated to the 
honor and glory of the Eepublic. 



American History. 249 

"He was in reality, as in name, the Commander-in-Chief of the 
army and the navy of the United States. He marshaled our forces 
on land and on sea and struck quick and hard and everywhere. 

"Xot a regiment was organized, not a ship was put in commission, 
not a movement was made, not a battle was fought, except with his 
personal knowledge, approval and direction. 

"The unbroken series of victories that crowned our arms and 
glorified our flag were his as well as those of our gallant soldiers and 
sailors." 

Governor Odell (New York). — "I had known the President in 
his official position, and had learned to respect him for his many 
good qualities and for his devotion to duty. It seemed to me that 
now, when he was about to enjoy the fruits of his wise policies, and 
when the care and anxiety incident to his first term were to be followed 
in his second term by the consummation to the full of these policies, 
it was lamentable that he could not have been spared to rejoice with 
the American people over the wisdom of his course." 

Senator Piatt. — "In President McKinley's death the country has 
sustained a distinct and overwhelming loss, and those who have been 
associated with him in his administration, both in the advisory and 
in the legislative capacity, feel a most poignant sorrow. During the 
past four years and a half I have become greatly impressed by his 
admirable personality, and my respect and regard for him as a Presi- 
dent and as a man were becoming more intense with the passage of time 
and the occurrence of opportunities for contact with him. His 
national spirit was patriotic and tolerant in the extreme. He has 
created a place in the affections of the people seldom acquired by 
presidents or kings, and his untimely demise leaves us all crushed 
under a burden of grief and sorrow." 

John D. Long, Secretary of the Navy. — "Our mourning is great, 
but our mourning for his death should be less than our gratitude 
for his life. It is fitting that all denominations of the Christian 



250 Memorial Volume of 

Church are one in the recognition of his virtues and the examples 
of his life. His was a life of modesty and virtue, typical of the best 
that is in American manhood. His was an administration more 
significant than any since the time of Lincoln, with whom he ranks. 
But, amid all the strenuous strife and turmoil of the last war, it is 
as a man of peace that we think of McKinley. The residents of 
Washington will mourn less the death of the statesman than the 
passing away of the fellow-citizen. It is for his many traits of kindness 
that he was dearly loved. The lawyer, the statesman, the President 
are revered and appreciated, but his simple human qualities cause 
McKinley to be loved most. His greatest impulse was always to do 
all in his power to make his fellowmen better and happier." 

Dr. F. P. Venable, President University of North Carolina. — 
"William McKinley proved himself a good President, administering 
all of the affairs of his great office with conscientious fidelity to duty 
and with a quiet wisdom which has steadied the people under trying 
circumstances. He showed also in his life a high type of Christian 
manhood, true to his country, his loved ones and his God." 

Senator J. C, Burrows. — "It may be said with truth, I think, 
that few men either in public or private life ever held so large and so 
secure a place in the affections of a people as did William McKinley. 
This is deservedly so. In private life and personal character he was 
an exemplar, and his public career was marked by sincerity, patriotism 
and fidelity to duty. Above all he was a Christian gentleman. Presi- 
dent McKinley's administration will be assigned a place in American 
history scarcely less important than that of Washington and Lincoln. 
Washington guided the Ship of State in the beginning of our national 
voyage and with steady hand and matchless wisdom set its course. 
Lincoln with exalted patriotism and sublime courage rescued it from 
the perils of tempestuous seas threatening to engulf it. McKinley, 
with a love of humanity and a faith which laid hold on the Infinite, 
turned its prow in a new and untried course and although the port of 



American History. 251 

our destiny is not yet in view we have gone far enough to discover 
that it brings to us a broader horizon, enlarged opportunities and a 
more exalted place among the nations of the earth. 

Congressman Champ Clark (Missouri) . — "The twice-elected Chief 
of this puissant Republic is dead and the people mourn. The wail 
of the nation's sorrow rolls over the land like the voice of many waters. 

"Moved by that wondrous touch of nature which makes the whole 
world kin, the people of every civilized country, from the king upon 
his throne to the peasant in his hovel, obeying St. Paul's injunction : 
'Rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep' — 
look toward our shores this day with saddened hearts and tearful eyes. 

"The murder of no other public man would have astonished and 
shocked the people so much — for ]\IcKinley was one of the most 
lovable of all the sons of men. It is safe to say that no man ever had 
the kindly side of his nature more fully developed. 

"Considering the length and eminence of his public service and 
the many contests in which he participated, he aroused personal 
animosities in a singularly small degree. j\ten fought his policies 
tooth and nail, while retaining respect and fondness for him. Most 
of his competitors for the prizes great and small of politics were 
counted among his friends. In the private relations of life he was 
an ideal citizen — an affectionate son, a devoted husband, a loyal friend 
and he discharged his official duties with such dignity and courtesy 
that his virtues did plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against 
the deep damnation of his taking off.' 

"He was a cordial host and dispensed the tradilional hospitalities 
of the White House in such hearty fashion that the humblest of his 
guests felt welcome within those historic walls. He was a gracious, 
graceful, amiable, handsome, tactful gentleman, with a rare faculty 
of rendering comfortable all those with whom he came in contact. 
He was one of the most popular men ever domiciled in that greatly 
coveted mansion — being much stronger than his party. 



353 • Memorial Volume of 

"From early boyhood to the day of his death he acted upon 
King Solomon's precept, 'Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it 
with thy might.' 

" 'Seest thou a man diligent in his business ? He shall stand 
before kings' — not only before kings but in this instance above them, 
for it is a higher honor to be Chief Magistrate of this Eepublic than 
to occupy any hereditary throne in Christendom or out of it; and 
what's more, a President who possesses the love and confidence of the 
American people, who is animated by their spirit and who voices their 
will, exercises greater power than any potentate on the whole face 
of the earth. This is not an idle boast but is a sober and pregnant his- 
toric fact. 

"Whether country schoolmaster, private soldier, sergeant, lieu- 
tenant, captain or major, prosecuting attorney, representative in 
Congress, governor or president, Mr. McKinley measured up to the 
duties of his station. 

"While having no claims to eloquence, he was a terse, luminous, 
forceful and impressive speaker. 

"He loved learning, but one of the misfortunes of public life 
is that it affords little leisure for literary pursuits. Lord Bacon 
declared that he took all knowledge for his province. That was a 
gorgeous conception and it is an immeasurable loss to humanity that 
Bacon turned his colossal intellect — the most exquisite ever housed in 
human skill — from literary and philosophic ends to seeking the 
paltry rewards of law and the fleeting honors of politics. 

"The public man must be content to cultivate an infinitesimal 
corner of the rich and boundless domain which the Father of the 
Inductive Philosophy pre-empted as his own. 

"Events of gravest import and of far-reaching consequences 
occurred during Mr. McKinley's administration and beyond all cavil 
he will occupy a large place in history. For weal or woe his Presi- 
dency marks a most memorable epoch in our annals. To undertake 



American History. 253 

to fix his status among presidents and statesmen would be the merest 
guess work and a sheer waste of time. 

"We are too close to him. 

'^A man's just and ultimate place in history is not determined 
amid the clangor of factional strife, the frenzy of partisan triumphs, 
or the solemn scenes of the funeral time. 

"As the race of prophets is extinct, the results of the policies of 
which Mr. McKinley was the most masterful proponent can not be 
foretold with anything approximating certainty. 

"The contemporary opinion in his own country touching any 
prominent actor in earthly affairs frequently varies widely from the 
verdict of posterity. The latter is the award of the court of last 
resort as to all human achievement and reputation. 

"When Lord Bacon, who richly deserves the title of 'The Modern 
Solomon,' came to write his will, he incorporated into it this philo- 
sophic and prophetic sentence — the most pitiful and pathetic in our 
vernacular : 'For my name and memory, I leave it to men's charitable 
speeches and to foreign nations and the next age.' 

"Mr. McKinle}', unlike the great Lord Chancellor, was not com- 
pelled to leave his 'name and memory to men's charitable speeches' — 
for there Mas nothing base or sordid in his nature and career as there 
were in Bacon's — and every tongue has something to utter in praise 
of him; but he can not escape — perhaps he need not fear — the judg- 
ment of 'foreign nations and the next age,' whose good opinion the 
illustrious Englishmen so proudly and so confidently challenged. 

"Benjamin Disraeli, Lord Beaconsfield, the most brilliant Eng- 
lishman of the last half of the nineteenth century, stoutly maintained 
that, 'the contemporary verdict of foreign nations is identical with 
the verdict of posterity.' If that be true, ]\Ir. ilcKinley will rank in 
history with the great American statesmen, for that appears to be 
the position to which contemporary foreign opinion has assigned him. 

"In the fullness of his fame — at the zenith of his powers — at the 



254 Memorial Volume of 

fioodtide of such popularity as has been vouchsafed to few of the sons 
of Adam— he was assassinated, not because he was William McKinley 
the man, but solely because he was the Presid.ent of the American 
Eepublic. Therefore, he died literally for his country and his country 
will remember him gratefully and tenderly forever. 

"When Joseph Addison was upon his deathbed, he sent for his 
wayward stepson, a young peer of the realm, to see not how a Prime 
Minister of England or the Chief of the Eepublic of letters could 
die but 'how a Christian could die.' 

"When the final summons came to William McKinley he died as 
he had lived in the simple faith of a Christian, peacefully murmur- 
ing : 'It is God's way ; His will be done.' 

President Roosevelt. — "Colonel Theodore Eoosevelt succeeds to 
the Presidency under most melancholy circumstances and in most 
unexpected manner. He is the youngest man upon whom the tremen- 
dous responsibilities of that high station have ever fallen. 

"To borrow his own favorite phrase, he has led a 'strenuous life' 
— not so strenuous, however, as lies before him till high noon, j\Iarch 
4, 1905. 

"He is an enigma as a public man — an unascertained quantity 
in the equation of our politics — up to this time a brilliant and por- 
tentous comet of most eccentric orbit. He has been talked about and 
written about as much as any American now living. Indeed he has 
done a vast deal of talking and writing himself. He has done more 
things than most men and has done them all well. For several years 
he has been much under the lime light and has kept himself well 
towards the centre of the stage. He has played many parts ranging 
from cowboy and broncho-buster to literatus, warrior and governor — 
all with success. Nevertheless by reason of the very multifariousness 
of his pursuits any prediction as to how he will conduct himself in 
the White House would be wild conjecture. Sobered by his onerous 
duties, he may settle down and pull steadily in the traces like an old 
horse or he may kick and buck like an unruly colt. 



American History. 255 

•''He pulled off his part of the inaugural show with such eclat 
as to increase the respect of all men for him. From that day to this he 
has grown steadily in public esteem. Mr. Vice-President Roosevelt 
was a great and gratifying improvement on Mr. Candidate Eoosevelt. 
It is to be sincerely hoped both for his own sake and the country's 
that he will make a model President. Whatever he may do or leave 
undone one thing can be implicitly relied upon — his robust and 
thoroughgoing Americanism. He is a patriot to the very core. He is 
emphatically a man of his own head, courageous, resolute, honest, 
ambitious, self-reliant and many sided. Unless he belies his entire 
record, he will be the puppet of no man and of no set of men. With 
the hopefulness of youth, with broad scholarship, with perfect health, 
with indefatigable habits of industry, with an engaging personality, 
with happy domestic environments, with a spectacular and variegated 
career behind him, this soldier, statesman, author, hunter, athlete 
holds the greatest office known among men and has it absolutely in his 
own hands to become a great historic figure. He has every imaginable 
incentive to spur him upward and onward along the difficult but 
shining pathway of glory wliich stretches away before him. All 
good citizens, without regard to political alignment, wish him well. 
The prayer of the whole people is that he will prove equal to his 
great opportunity and so administer the affairs of his exalted station 
as to increase the love for representative government and to leave 
behind him a spotless and a splendid name. 

The Conclusion of the Whole Matter. — "How utterly futile is 
the attempt of anarchists to destroy this government, of the people, by 
the people and for the people was thoroughly demonstrated at Buffalo 
when Theodore Roosevelt became our Chief Magistrate with no pomp 
and with the simple ceremony of taking an oath to 'faithfully execute 
the office of President of the United States and to preserve, protect 
and defend the Constitution of the United States.' 

"Men may come and men may go, but thanks be to Almighty 



256 , Memorial Volume of 

God ! this great Republic — the light and hope of the world — goes on 
forever. 

"The conclusion of the whole matter can not be better expressed 
than in the sublime declaration of James A. Garfield, himself destined 
to a martyr's death, upon the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, 
our first martyred President: 'God reigns and the government at 
Washington still lives !' " 



American History. 357 



XXV. 



THE NATIONAL AFFLICTION. 

BY WILLIAM J. BRYAN. 



As monuments reared by grateful hands to the memory of heroes 
testify to the virtues of the living as well as to the services of the 
dead, so the sorrow that has overwhelmed our nation, obliterating the 
distinctions of party, race and religion, is as complimentary to the 
patriotism of our people as to our departed Chief Magistrate. But 
it is not strange that the people bow as one man over the bier of their 
illustrious fellow-citizen — not strange that the solemn stillness is 
broken only by the chanting of the sacred hymns which he was wont 
to sing — not strange that all hearts turn in sympathy to the husband- 
less home in Canton. 

An Attack Upon the Whole People. — Xeither is it strange that 
all view with equal abhorrence the foul and bloody deed that robbed 
the nation of its executive, nor that all demanded with equal earnest- 
ness the speedy punishment of the offender and of any others who 
may have aided or counseled the commission of the crime. It would 
be more than strange — it would be a reproach to our people — if 
there were differences among us so radical that they could not be 
softened by the tragedy of death. It would, indeed, be a disgrace to 
our nation if the murder of a President concerned only the members 
of the dominant party. While no recent campaigns have aroused 
deeper feeling than those through which Mr. McKinley passed, yet 
in no contests did the minority more cheerfully acquiesce in the will of 
the majority as expressed at the polls. He was the President of all 
the people, and their dignity and sovereignty were attacked when he 
was assaulted. 

17 



258 Memorial Volume of 

No Man Dieth TJnto Himself. — We are all so linked together in 
this world, and our joys and sorrows are so interwoven with the joys 
and sorrows of others that no one liveth unto himself or dieth unto 
himself. Even the humblest citizen cannot withdraw from earth 
without bringing grief to some heart, and the number of those who 
mourn is increased as the circle of acquaintance and influence is 
enlarged. 

The President's position made him a part of the life of all his 
countrymen, and the circumstances which attended his taking-off 
added indignation to grief — indignation that even one murderous 
heart could be found in all the land, and grief that the wicked purpose 
of that heart should have been consummated against one so gentle in 
spirit and so kind in word and deed. 

Government a Necessity. — Anarchy can have no defenders in the 
United States. Government is a necessity, and the delusion that 
society can exist without it is harmful even when no violence is advo- 
cated, for it is the duty of every citizen of a republic to strive to make 
his government perfect in every detail, and this purpose is not only 
weakened, but entirely destroyed by the doctrine that all governments 
are bad and should be overthrown. He is a friend of the government 
who seeks to reform every abuse and make the government an unalloyed 
blessing, but he is a public enemy, and should be treated as such, Avho 
weakens the authority of the law by denying that government is 
desirable or necessary. 

If to theoretical opposition to all forms of government is added 
the counseling of murder as a means of removing officials, then the 
advisor becomes equally guilty with the assassin. 

I yield to none in my appreciation of the private character and 
public virtues of William McKinley; I rejoice that his career so fully 
demonstrates the possibilities of American citizenship. The young 
men of the country can find inspiration and encouragement in the fact 
that he made his own way from obscurity to fame. Those w^ho are 



American History. 259 

nearing the boundary of life can find consolation and example in the 
superb manner in which he fought his final battle — his courage and 
fortitude in the closing hours recalling the bravery which he displayed 
as a soldier. Domestic happiness has never been better illustrated than 
in his home life, and Christian faith and trust never better exemplified 
than in the way he met death. 

Influence as a Statesman. — Few^ if any, of our public men have 
been more approachable, and his generous conduct and genial ways 
held to the last the friends whom his genius attracted. His associates 
early recognized his qualities of leadership, and no statesman has 
exerted greater influence upon his party or upon the politics of his 
generation. He possessed rare ability in presenting and defending 
his views and has made a profound impression upon the history of 
his time. 

The Best Things in Life are Above Politics. — The universality 
of the respect shown for the deceased and the genuineness of the good 
will manifested toward him teach a lesson that should not be for- 
gotten, namely, that the best things in life are above and beyond the 
domain of politics. In campaigns the points of difference between 
citizens are emphasized and ofttimes exaggerated, but the poi. ts of 
similarity are really more numerous, more important and more per- 
manent. In stature and in strength, in plans and in purpose, in love, 
in hope, in fear, and in all human needs we are much the same. A 
man's party affiliations may depend upon environment or even upon 
inheritance, but his character depends upon his own conduct and his 
morals are within his own keeping. It is not possible that all good 
should be confined to one party and all evil to another. It would 
be a sad day for the country if all the virtue, all the intelligence and 
all the patriotism were to be found in one political organization if 
there were another organization of any considerable size having the 
allegiance of all the vicious, ignorant and unpatriotic. It is unfortu- 
nate that in the heat of political controversy partisanship sometimes 



I 



260 Memorial Volume op 

becomes so strong as to cause injustice to be done to the motives of 
political opponents, and it should be our constant aim to place our 
campaigns upon so high a plane that personalities will be eliminated 
and the issues made to turn upon the principles involved. 

Let us hope that this national affliction which unites all factions 
in a common sorrow will result in a broader charity and a more 
liberal spirit among those vdio by different policies and through differ- 
ent parties seek to promote the welfare and increase the glory of our 
common country. 



American History. 261 

XXVI. 
THE ASSASSIN. 

The day after the tragedy at Buffalo the assassin, Czolgosz, made 
the following statement, to which he signed his name : 

"I was born in Detroit nearly twenty-nine years ago. My parents 
were Eussian Poles. They came here forty-two years ago. I got my 
education in the public schools of Detroit and then went to Cleveland, 
where I got work. In Cleveland I read books on socialism and met a 
great many socialists. I was pretty well known as a socialist in the 
West. After being in Cleveland for several years I went to Chicago, 
where I remained seven months, after which I went to ISTewburg, on 
the outskirts of Cleveland, and went to work in the ISTewburg Wire 
Mills. 

"During the last five years I have had as friends anarchists in 
Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit and other Western cities, and I suppose 
I became more or less bitter. I know I was bitter. I never had much 
luck at anything, and this preyed upon me. It made me morose and 
envious, but what started the craze to kill was a lecture I heard some 
little time ago by Emma Goldman. She was in Cleveland, and I and 
other anarchists went to hear her. She set me on fire. 

Her Words Set Him on Fire. — "Her doctrine that all rulers should 
be exterminated was what set me to thinking, so that my head nearly 
split with the pain. Miss Goldman's words went right through me, and 
when I left the lecture I had made up my mind that I would have to do 
something heroic for the cause I loved. 

"Eight days ago, while I was in Chicago, I read in a Chicago 
newspaper of President McKinley's visit to the Pan-American Expo- 
sition at Buffalo. That day I bought a ticket for Buffalo and got here 
with the determination to do something, but I did not know just what. 
I thought of shooting the President, but I had not formed a plan. 



263 Memorial Volume of 

Nowak Knew Nothing. — '"T went to live at 1078 Broadway, which 
is a saloon and hotel. John IsTowak, a Pole, a sort of politician, who 
has led his people here for years, owns it. I told ISTowak that I came 
to see the fair. He knew nothing about what was setting me crazy. I 
went to the Exposition grounds a couple of times a day. 

"Not until Tuesday morning did the resolution to shoot the Presi- 
dent take a hold of me. It was in my heart ; there was no escape for 
me. I could not have conquered it had my life been at stake. There 
were thousands of people in town on Tuesday. I heard it was Presi- 
dent's Day. All those people seemed bowing to the great ruler. I 
made up my mind to kill that ruler. I bought a thirty-two calibre 
revolver and loaded it. 

Tried Once Before. — "On Tuesday night I went to the fair 
grounds and was near the rear gate when the Presidential party 
arrived. I tried to get near him, but the police forced me back. They 
forced everybody back so that the great ruler could pass. I was close 
to the President when he got into the grounds, but was afraid to 
attempt the assassination, because there were so many men in the body- 
guard that watched him. I was not afraid of them or that I should 
get hurt, but afraid I might be seized and that my chance would be 
gone forever. 

"Well, he went away that time and I went home. On Wednesday 
I went to the grounds and stood right near the President, right under 
him near the stand from which he spoke. 

Afraid He Would Miss. — "I thought half a dozen times of shoot- 
ing while he was speaking, but I could not get close enough. I was 
afraid I would miss, and then the great crowd was always jostling, and 
I was afraid lest my aim fail. I waited until Wednesday, and the Presi- 
dent got into his carriage again, and a lot of men were about him and 
formed a cordon that I could not get through. I was tossed about by 
the crowd, and my spirits were getting pretty low. I was almost hope- 
less that night as I went home. 



American History. 263 

"Yesterday morning I went again to the Exposition grounds. 
Emma Goldman's speech was still burning me up. I waited near the 
central entrance for the President, who was to board his special train 
from that gate, but the police allowed nobody but the President's party 
to pass where the train waited. So I stayed at the grounds all day 
waiting. 

The Diabolical Plot. — "During yesterday I first thought of hid- 
ing my pistol under my handkerchief. I was afraid if I had to draw it 
from my pocket I would be seen and seized by the guards. I got to 
the Temple of Music the first one and waited at the spot where the 
reception was to be held. 

"Then he came, the President — the ruler — and I got in line and 
trembled and trembled until I got right up to him, and then I shot 
him twice through my white handkerchief. I would have fired more, 
but I was stunned by a blow in the face — a frightful blow that 
knocked me down — and then everybody jumped on me. I thought I 
would be killed, and was surprised the way they treated me." 

Really Meant to Kill. — Czolgosz ended his story in utter exhaus- 
tion. When he had about concluded he was asked : 

"Did you really mean to kill the President?" 

"I did," was the cold-blooded reply. 

"What was your motive; what good could it do?" he was asked. 

"I am an anarchist. I am a disciple of Emma Goldman. Her 
words set me on fire," he replied, with not the slightest tremor. 

"I deny that I have had an accomplice at any time," Czolgosz told 
District Attorney Penney. "I don't regret my act, because I was doing 
what I could for the great cause. I am not connected with the Pater- 
son group, or with those anarchists who sent Bresci to Italy to kill 
Humbert. I had no confidants; no one to help me. I was alone 
absolutely." 

Immediately after the death of the President, one of the staff 
physicians in attendance on the President reported the opinion that 



264 Memorial Volume of 

the bullets may have been poisoned. District Attorne}' Penney, who 
had possession of the assassin's revolver, ordered careful and thorough 
examination made. Dr. Hill was directed to make a chemical examina- 
tion of the bullets and chambers and barrel of the revolver, and Dr. 
Herman G. Matzinger, one of the physicians who performed the 
autopsy upon the President's body, was ordered to make a bacterio- 
logical examination. Dr. Hill reported to the district attorney that 
his work showed no poison had been used. 

^Yithin a week after the President was laid to rest Czolgosz was 
put on his trial. He was convicted of murder in the first degree, and 
sentenced to death. 

The trial consumed only two days. It was announced by the 
attorneys for Czolgosz that the eminent specialists summoned by the 
Erie County Bar Association and by the District Attorney to examine 
Czolgosz and to determine his exact mental condition had declared him 
to be perfectly sane. This destroyed the only chance of a defence, 
and the prisoner's attorneys. Judges Lewis and Titus (who had been 
appointed by the court), called no witnesses. The address by Judge 
Lewis will long be remembered. After explaining at length why it 
was proper that a defence should be interposed, even when a plea of 
guilty has been entered, he said : 

"Here was a man occupying an exalted position, a man of irre- 
proachable character. He was a man who had come here to assist us 
in promoting the prosperity of our great exposition, and he was shot 
down while holding a reception. 

"His death has touched every heart in this community and in 
the whole world, and yet we sit here and quietly consider whether 
this man was responsible for the act he committed. That question 
is one you are called on to decide. 

"The law presumes the defendant innocent until he is proven 
guilty, and we start with the assumption that the defendant was not 



American History. 365 

mentally responsible for the crime he committed. We have not been 
able to present any evidence upon our part. The defendant has even 
refused on almost every occasion to talk with his counsel. He has 
not aided us, so we have come here unaided to consider this important 
question. But I know there is in every human being a strong desire 
to live. Death is a spectre that we all dislike to meet, and here this 
defendant without having any animosity against our President, with- 
out any personal motive, so far as we can see, committed the act 
which, if he was sane, must cause his death. How can a man with a 
sane mind perform such an act? The rabble in the streets will say, 
no matter whether he is insane or not, he deserves to be killed. 

"The law, however, says that you must consider the circum- 
stances and see if he was in his right mind or not when he committed 
the deed. If you find he was not responsible you will aid in lifting a 
great cloud from the minds of the people of this country. If the be- 
loved President had met with a railroad accident and been killed our 
grief could not compare with what it is now. If you find he met his 
fate through the act of an insane man it is the same as though he met 
it by accident. I had the profoundest respect for President McKinley. 
I watched him in Congress and during his long public career, and he 
was one of the noblest men God ever made. His policy we care noth- 
ing about, but it always met with my profoundest respect. His death 
was the saddest blow to me that has occurred in many years." 

Judge Lewis was weeping when he finished, and the eyes of many 
of those in the court room were filled with tears. 

In summing up the case for the State, District Attorney Penney 
said : 

"It is a great lesson that so great a man can stoop so low, that he 
was so great that he could forgive his own assassin. He was the 
noblest man, I believe, God ever created. A man who stood near him 
in the Temple of Music said to me : 'I have traveled in all parts of the 
world, and have seen people assembled to greet their rulers, but when 



266 Memorial Volume of 

I saw the people stand in the railroad stations and along the country 
through which the funeral train passed, that they might get a look at 
the casket of the great man, I was convinced as never before that there 
is such a thing as a national heart.' 

"The national heart was broken, and it will take God's way and 
time to heal it. 

No Home for Anarchists. — "It was broken by a class of people 
who are coming to our country in increasing numbers, and while har- 
bored by our laws are propagating their malicious views; a class of 
people that must be taught that we have no place for them on our 
shores ; a class of people that must be taught that they can't take the 
life of anyone irrespective of consequences. 

"Think again, gentlemen. Here is a man who does not want a 
law}^er, who does not believe in God nor in law, a man who does not 
believe in the married relation ; yet our laws ■ are such that he is 
defended by two of the ablest jurists in our city, as if he was the most 
respected defendant ; and even though he comes into court and says 
he was guilty, yet, gentlemen, you are required under the Constitu- 
tion to listen to the formal presentation of the evidence, notwithstand- 
ing the fact that this man says he does not want it." 

When the verdict of the jury was announced there was no dem- 
onstration — only a general sigh of relief. The prisoner maintained 
the same air of utter unconcern that had marked his course ever since 
the tragedy. He did not even raise his eyes. 



American History. 266a 



THE EXECUTION OF CZOLGOSZ. 

The final scene of the great tragedy of September 6, 1901, took 
place in Auburn (X. Y.) Prison at seven o'clock of Tuesday morning, 
October 29. The condemned murderer had been conveyed to the prison 
September 37, and there confined for one month, as the New York 
law does not allow the execution of a capital sentence under thirty days 
of its passage. During this time every inducement was made to make 
the prisoner commit himself fully by confession, but to the end he reso- 
lutely disclaimed that he was either a member of any anarchist asso- 
ciation or had any accomplice in his crime. N"or did he show remorse 
or shrink from the penalty that had l)een pronounced upon his deed. 
In not a few respects he proved an enigma, unless we conclude that he 
was a pervert so degenerate as scarcely to be able to distinguish right 
from wrong. Educated in the common schools of Detroit, Czolgosz had 
such advantages as fall to the common lot of men, but so far from 
improving them, his brutish nature found vent in the practicing of 
unnatural crimes, and thus weakening a naturally morbid mind he 
came to be a mental outcast. The apparent indifference to his fate 
which he manifested was therefore neither stoicism nor bravado, but 
rather failure of his powers of comprehension, or in hopelessne:=s his 
desire to have extinguished a life that had become disfigured through 
self-abuse. 

Indifference of the Condemned. — There was about the prison on 
the morning of the execution the usual crowd of curious persons and 
seekers of notoriety, who came with many propositions to pay a price 
for sight of the condemned man, for a bit of his clothing, or a memento 
from his hand, but Warden Mead frustrated all these attempts, and 
made the last scenes as little sensational as circumstances permitted. 

The condemned man was permitted an interview with his brother 
the evening before the execution, but his words were monosyllables 



2665 Memorial Volume op 

that showed he had neither affection nor sentiment, and when Fathers 
Fudzinski and Hickey offered him the consohitions of religion he gave 
them cursings, and went to his death unrepentent, like a soulless spirit 
alien to his race. 

Czolgosz's cell was fourth in a row of five, all filled with con- 
demned murderers, and when called to pay the just penalty he had to 
walk less than fifty feet to reach the death chamber, where the electric 
chair Avas in readiness to receive him in its fatal embrace. He had 
slept soundly the night before, and ate a hearty breakfast the last 
morning, and was well nourished, so with the fortitude of a degenerate 
he went forth unsupported and apparently as indifferent as if going 
upon an unimportant errand. He was plainly dressed, in black trousers, 
loose gray shirt, and with socks to match, as there was no need now 
for other clothing. His trousers were split at the bottom to permit 
the placing of an electrode to the calf of his left leg, and his shirt was 
left open at the neck to enable the doctors to take the count of his heart- 
beats after the electric current had been shot through his body. 

Appearance of the Murderer. — It was a few moments past 7 
a. m. when, by order of the warden, Czolgosz was brought from his 
cell and conducted by two deputies to the death chamber. He was 
very pale, but held his head erect, and showed remarkable resolution 
to the end. The witnesses, twenty, all told, in number, took seats in 
chairs arranged along the side of the chamber, and when the con- 
demned man came in there was noticeable shrinking and excitement 
over the sight which they were soon to behold. Xo time was lost in 
ceremony, for the victim of a just law was led directly to the death 
chair, in which he seated himself without the least evidence of fear, 
and in a steady voice he uttered the following words: 

Scene of the Execution. — "I killed the President because he was, 
an enemy of the good people — of the working people," and as the guard 
pushed back his head and began to strap his forehead and chin Czol- 
gosz spoke loudly, "I am not sorry for my crime, but I am awfully 



A^kiERicAX History. 

sorry I could not sec my father."" These were his last words, for the 
straps were immediately adjusted, and at T.12 Electrician Davis pulled 
the switch that sent IjTOO volts coursing through the victim. Death 
was, no douht, instantaneous, for the body strained so hard against the 
leather straps that they creaked shockingly, while the hands clutched, 
and the whole attitude was one of extreme tenseness. The current 
was on for forty-five seconds, and then cut off, whereupon the body 
collapsed instantly. Again the great voltage was repeated, and even a 
third time, followed always by rigidity of the body, which became limp 
at once when the current was shut off. At 7.15 the execution was com- 
plete, and pronouncement of the fact was made by the warden two 
seconds later. The witnesses were visibly affected, particularly when 
the body was lifted from the death chair and laid upon an operating 
table preparatory to an autopsy being made by Drs. Gerin and 
McDonald. Examination of the brain disclosed the fact that it was 
slightl}' above normal in weight and perfectly healthy. 

The body of Czolgosz being unclaimed by his relatives it was 
buried in the prison yard, in quicklime and vitriol, to insure its com- 
plete destruction in twelve hours. 

The law had been vindicated and the murder of our beloved 
President avcn^red. 



American History. 267 

XXVII. 
LESSONS OF THE TRAGEDY. 



BY DAVID STARR JORDAN^ 
President Leland Stanford University- 



All Violence is Treason. — One plain lesson is this: Under 
democracy all violence is treason. Whosoever throws a stone at a 
scab teamster, whosoever fires a shot at the President of the United 
States, is an enemy of the Republic. He is guilty of high treason 
in his heart, and treason in thought works itself out in lawlessness 
of action. 

The central fact of democracy is agreement with law. It is our 
law : we have made it. If it is wrong we can change it, hut the compact 
of democracy is that we change it in peace. ''The sole source of power 
under God is the consent of the governed." This Cromwell wrote 
once across the statute books of Parliament. This, in other words, 
our fathers wrote in our own Constitution. The will of the people is the 
sole source of any statute you or I may be called on to obey. It is 
the decree of no army, the dictum of no President. It is the work of 
no aristocracy ; not of blood nor of wealth. It is simply our own under- 
standing that we shall do right, shall behave justly, shall live and let 
our neighbor live. If our law is tyrannous it is our ignorance which 
has made it so. Let it pinch a little and we shall find out what hurts 
us. Then it will be time to change. Laws are made through the 
ballot, and through the ballot we can unmake them. There is no other 
honest way, no other way that is safe and no other way which is 
effective. To break the peace is to invite tyranny. Lawlessness is the 
expression of weakness, of ignorance, of unpatriotism. If tyranny 



268 Memorial Volume of 

provokes anarchy so does anarchy necessitate tyranny. Confusion 
brings the man on horseback. It was to keep away both anarchy and 
tyranny that the public school was established in America. 

The Shadow of Humiliation. — Three times has our nation been 
ealled upon to pass into the shadow of humiliation, and each time 
in the past its severe lesson it has learned. When Lincoln fell, slavery 
perished. To the American of to-day human slavery in a land of 
civilization is almost an impossible conception, yet many of us who 
think ourselves still young can remember when half of this land held 
other men in bondage and the dearest hope of freedom was that such 
things should not go on forever. I can remember when we looked for- 
ward to the time when "at least the present form of slavery should be no 
more." For democracy and slavery could not subsist together. The 
Union could not stand — half slave, half free. 

The last words of Garfield were these: "Strangulatus pro repub- 
lica," "slain for the Eepublic." The feudal tyranny of the spoils 
system which had made Eepublican administration a farce has not 
had, since Garfield's time, a public defender. It has not vanished from 
our politics, but its place is where it belongs, among the petty wrongs 
of maladministration. 

Again a President is slain for the Eepublic — and the lesson is 
the homely one of peace and order, patience and justice, respect for 
ourselves through respect for law, for public welfare and for public 
right. 

Lawless Sensationalism. — For this country is passing through a 
time of storm and stress, a flurry of lawless sensationalism. The 
irresponsible journalism, the industrial wars, the display of hastily 
gotten wealth, the grasping of monopoly, the walking delegate, the 
vulgar • cartoon, the sympathetic strike, the unsympathetic lockout, 
the foul-mouthed agitator, are all symptoms of a single disease, the 
loss of patriotism, the decay of the sense of justice. As in other cases, 
the symptoms feed the disease, as well as indicate it. The deed of 



American History. 269 

violence breeds more deeds of violence ; anarch}^ provokes hysteria and 
hysteria makes anarchy. The unfounded scandal sets a hundred 
tongues to wagging, and the sweepage from the gutter reaches a thou- 
sand homes. 

The journal for the weak-minded and debased makes heroes of 
those of its class who carry folly over into crime. The half-crazed 
egotist imagines himself a regicide, and his neighbor with the clean 
shirt is his oppressor, and therefore his natural victim. Usually his 
heart fails him and his madness spends itself in foul words. Some- 
times it does not and the world stands aghast. But it is not alone 
against the Chief Magistrate that these thoughts and deeds are 
directed. There are usually others within closer range. There is 
scarcely a man in our country, prominent in any way, statesman, 
banker, merchant, railway manager, clerg}^man, teacher even, that has 
not somewhere his would-be Xemesis, some lunatic with a sensa- 
tional newspaper and a pistol prepared to take his life. 

The Gospel of Discontent. — The gospel of discontent has no place 
within our Eepublic. It is true, as has been often said, that discontent 
is the cause of human progress. It is truer still, as Mr. John P. 
Irish has lately pointed out, that discontent may be good or bad, 
according to its relation to the individual man. There is a noble 
discontent which a man turns against himself. It leads the man who 
fails to examine his own weaknesses to make the needed repairs in him- 
self, then to take up the struggle again. There is the cowardly dis- 
content which leads a man to blame all failure on his prosperous 
neighbor, or on society at large, as if a social system existed apart from 
the men who made it. This is the sort of discontent to which the 
agitator appeals, that finds its stimulus in sensational journalism. 
It is that which feeds the frenzy of the assassin who would work 
revenge on society by destroying its accepted head. 

Hatred of Class for Class. — It is not theoretical anarchism or social- 
ism or any other "ism" which is responsible for this. Many of the 



270 Memorial Volume of 

gentlest spirits in the world to-day call themselves anarchists, because 
they look forward to the time when personal meekness shall take the 
place of all statute. The gentle anarchism of the optimistic phil- 
osopher is not that which confronts us to-day. It is the anarchy of 
destruction, the hatred of class for class, a hatred that rests only on 
distorted imagination, for after all is said, there are no classes in 
America. It is a hatred imported from the Old World, excited by 
walking delegates, whose purpose is to carry a torch through society, 
fanned by agitators of whatever sort, unpractical dreamers or con- 
scienceless scoundrels, exploited in the newspapers, abetted by so-called 
high society, with its display of shoddy and greed, and intensified 
by the cold hard selfishness which underlies the power of the trust. All 
these people, monopolists, social leaders, walking delegates, agitators, 
sensationalists, dreamers, are alien to our ways, outside the scope of 
our democracy, and enemies to good citizenship. 

The real Americans, trying to live their lives in their own way, 
saving a little of their earnings and turning the rest into education 
and enjoyment, have many grievances in these days of grasping trusts 
and lawless unions. But of such free Americans our country is made. 
They are the people, not the trusts nor the unions, nor their sensa- 
tional go-betweens. This is their government, and government of the 
people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the 
earth. This is the people's President — our President who was killed, 
and it is ours to avenge him. 

Not by lynch law on a large or small scale may we do it, not by 
anarchy or despotism, not by the destruction of all who call themselves 
anarchists, not abridging freedom of the press, nor by checking free- 
dom of speech. Those who would wreak lawless vengeance on the 
anarchists are themselves anarchists and makers of anarchists. 

Laws Enough. — We have laws enough already without making 
more for men to break. Let us get a little closer to the higher law. 
Let us respect our own rights and those of our neighbor a little 



American Histjory. 371 

better. Let us cease to tolerate sensational falsehood about our 
neighbors, or vulgar abuse of those in power. If we have bad rulers 
let us change them peacefully. Let us put an end to every form of 
intimidation wherever practised. The cause that depends upon hurl- 
ing rocks or epithets, on clubbing teamsters or derailing trains cannot be 
a good cause. Even if originally in the right, the act of violence puts 
the partisans of such a cause in the wrong. No freeman ever needs 
to do such things as these. For the final meaning of democracy is 
peace on earth, good will toward men. When we stand for justice 
among ourselves we can demand justice of the monopolistic trust. 
When we attack it with clear vision and cool speech we shall find the 
problem of combination for monopoly not greater than any other. 
And large or small, there is but one way for us to meet any problem; 
to choose wise men, clean men, cool men, the best we can secure 
through our method of the ballot, and then to trust the rest in their 
hands. The murder of the President has no direct connection with 
industrial war. Yet there is this connection, that all war, industrial 
or other, loosens the bonds of order, destroys mutual respect and 
trust, gives inspiration to anarchy, pushes a foul thought on to a 
foul word, a foul word on to a foul deed. 

We trust that now that the worst has come, the foulest deed has 
been committed, that our civil wars may stop, not through the victory 
of one side or the other, the trusts or the unions now set off against 
each other, but in the victory over both of the American people, of 
the great body of men and women who must pay for all, and who are 
the real sufferers in every phase of the struggle. 

The lesson of Manliness and Godliness. — "Strangulatus pro 
republica;'" "Slain for the Eepublic." The lesson is plain. It is for 
us to take it into our daily lives. It is the lesson of peace and good 
will, the lesson of manliness and godliness. Let us take it to ourselves, 
and our neighbors will take it from us. 

All civilized countries are ruled by public opinion. If there be a 



373 Memorial Volume of 

lapse in our civic duties, it is due to a lapse in our keenness of vision, 
our devotion to justice. This means a weakening of the individual 
men, the loss of the man himself in the movements of the mass. Per- 
haps the marvelous material development of our age, the achievements 
of the huge co-operation which science has made possible has over- 
shadowed the importance of the individual man. If so, we have only 
to reassert ourselves. It is of men, individual men, clear-thinking, 
God-fearing, sound-acting men, and of these alone, that great nations 
can be made. 



American History. S^S 

XXVIII. 
THE ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN. 

The nation has had many grave days; many direful times when 
the lamp of the Republic was so fanned by the flame of terrible event as 
to seem near to extinguishment ; most awful, appalling, disastrous, was 
the murder, through hellish hate, inspired by insane rabidness, 
political rancor, and anarchist madness, of Lincoln, Garfield, and 
McKinley. 

During the dreadful period of internecine strife, when for four 
years the country, dismembered by fratricidal conflict, ran red with 
slaughter, the public mind became so accustomed to tales of blood-lust 
as to be merciless, sanguinar}^, almost insensate. Cheeks no longer 
paled with terror, nor did the heart beat with fear when reports from 
gory battlefields numbered the wounded and slain, for there was 
revenge rankling in the breasts of the defeated and exaltation in the 
hearts of the victors, for war turns humanity l^ack to savagery, so little 
removed is the race in instinct from the primal condition of thirst for 
tlie blood of enemies. 

Sorrow in the South. — But although men and women had been 
schooled by a long experience of civil war to read with almost com- 
posure details of sanguinary encounters, never was there a greater, 
more terrorizing, or horrific shock administered than that felt by citi- 
zens of the Union when there was flashed over the wires the awful news 
of President Lincoln's assassination. And it may be said also, that the 
efPect was scarcely less terrible in the South than it was in the North, 
for such a deed, damnable, as it was direful, could never be suggested, 
much less approved by a brave and chivalrous people as are those of the 
South. The act was that of a fanatic, and therefore purely personal 
as has since been clearly proved. Commenting upon it afterwards 
18 



274 Memorial Volume of 

Jefferson Davis, speaking for the South, as well as expressing his own 
sentiments, said, "Next to the destruction of the Confederacy, the death 
of Abraham Lincoln was the darkest day the South has ever known." 
This utterance was made ten years after the war, but was nevertheless 
in consonance with the feelings he had declared many times before, as 
well also in line with sentiments publicly announced by many other 
distinguished Southerners. 

The assassination of Lincoln occurred on the night of the four- 
teenth of April, 18G5, at a time when the triumph of the Union arms 
was practically complete, and reconciliation of the long estranged sec- 
tions occupied his thoughts and impelled his noblest purpose, for his 
second inaugural speech, "with malice towards none, with charity for 
all," foreshadowed the magnanimity of his heart and the generosity of 
his designs in dealing with the South, when peace, which was evidently 
near at hand, should fold her weary pinions and set her feet again 
upon the distressed land. 

Lincoln's Warning in a Dream. — Lincoln had a premonition of his 
fate. Perhaps this was but natural, considering the excited condition 
of the country at the time, when blood was held cheaply and men's 
passions led them readily to murder; so there may have been nothing 
occult in his apprehension that he was to fall victim to an assassin. 
But, nevertheless, this story, related in Hapgood's "Abraham Lincoln," 
is well worth retelling : 

"The President referred a few days before the end to the number 
of warnings by dreams in the Bible, the book which had of late taken 
such a hold upon him. Finally he said : 

" 'About ten days ago I retired very late. I had been waiting for 
important dispatches from the front. I could not have been long in 
bod when I fell into a slumber, for I was weary. I soon began to 
dream. There seemed to be a deathlike stillness about me. Then I 
heard subdued sobs, as if a number of people were weeping. I thought 
I left my 1)ed and wandered downstairs. There the silence was broken 
by the same pitiful sobbing, but the mourners were invisible- 



American" History, 375 

" T went from room to room ; no living person was in sight, but 
the same mournful sounds of distress met me as I passed along. It was 
light in all the rooms ; every object was familiar to me ; but where were 
all the people who were grieving as if their hearts would break? I was 
puzzled and alarmed. What could be the meaning of all this ? Deter- 
mined to find the cause of a state of things so mysterious and so shock- 
ing, I kept on until I arrived at the East Room, which I entered. 
There 1 met with a sickening surprise. Before me was a catafalque 
on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. Around it 
were stationed soldiers, who were acting as guards, and there was a 
throng of people, some gazing mournfully upon the corpse, whose face 
was covered, others weepingly pitifully. 

" ' "Who is dead in the White House ?" I demanded of one of the 
soldiers. 

" "The President," was the answer ; 'T^ie was killed by an assassin !" 

" 'Then came a loud burst of grief from the crowd, which awoke 
me from my dream. I slept no more that night, and although it was 
only a dream, I have been strangely annoyed by it ever since.' " 

This dream lingered in his mind to the day of his death. On the 
very eve of his assassination he quoted to Lamon : 

"To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub !" 

Killed in the Theatre. — It was on the evening of April 14, 1865, 
a few minutes after ten o'clock, that Mr. Lincoln was shot by John 
Wilkes Booth in a private box at Ford's Theatre. The play was "Our 
American Cousin," and the famous actress, Laura Keene, had the prin- 
cipal part. After firing the fatal shot, the murderer sprang down to 
the stage, but caught one of his spurs in the flag with which the box 
was draped, and fell heavily. Though his ankle was broken by this 
accident he was up again in an instant, and took time to strike an atti- 
tude and cry to the audience, "Sic semper tyrannis," "so be it ever to 
tyrants," which is the motto of Virginia, before taking flight. Only 
one person in the theatre. Major Stewart, had the presence of mind 



276 Memorial Volume of 

to pursue the murderer, climbing upon the stage and running after him 
down the allej^ where Booth had left his horse in charge of a boy. But 
the assassin by this time was mounted, and with a confederate named 
Harold he fled. He got safely over into Maryland, and eleven days 
elapsed before he was finally cornered in a burning barn on Garrett's 
farm, where he was shot to death by Sergeant Boston Corbett. Corbett 
acted without orders, as the last instructions given by Colonel Baker 
had been to take the assassin alive. 

Five of the misguided man's co-conspirators were tried and four 
of them, Payne, Harold, Atzerodt and Mrs. Surratt, were hanged. Dr. 
Mudd was sent to the Dry Tortugas for a number of years, where he 
did so much good among yellow fever sufferers that he was pardoned 
and returned home, where he finally died. John Surratt, husband of 
the woman that was hanged, fied to Italy, entered the Papal Guards, 
but was afterwards discovered and brought back to this country, but 
he escaped condemnation. 

The fatally wounded President was carried across the street from 
the theatre to the house of William Petersen, where he died at twenty- 
two minutes after seven o'clock next morning. At nine o'clock the 
body was taken to the White House, where it remained in the East 
Eoom until the nineteenth. Then it was removed to the Capitol, and 
lay tliere in state, to be viewed by thousands, until April 22, when the 
body was taken by special train through Maryland, Delaware, Penn- 
sylvania, New York and Indiana to Springfield, 111., where it was 
buried. At half a dozen cities it lay in state, and millions of people 
gazed — as they had done in his dream — "mournfully upon the corpse ; 
others weeping pitifully." 

Disposition of Booth's Remains. — Wilkes Booth was buried in the 
penitentiary at Washington. When part of the prison was torn down 
his remains were taken up and interred beneath the floor of a store- 
house now occupied as barracks by the War Department. Relatives 
obtained permission, near the close of Johnson's administration, to 



American History. 277 

remove them, and the task was accomplished as quietly as possible, the 
services of an undertaker being engaged. 

This undertaker's shop happened to be just around the corner from 
Ford's Theatre. About 7 p. m. a ^vag•on drove into the alley alongside 
of the theatre and stopped in the rear of the undertaker's. This, oddly 
enough, was the same alley in which Booth had left his horse to be held 
while he went into the theatre to accomplish a crime that was destined 
to startle the world. The wagon unloaded a pine box containing a 
body, which was carefully examined and duly identified with the help 
of a dentist, who had filled the teeth. Then it was put into a coffin and 
shipped by rail at night to Baltimore, where it was interred in the 
Booth burial lot at Greenmount Cemetery. 

Beecher's Oration on Lincoln. — In a speech in Brooklyn on the 
Sunday following the assassination of Lincoln, Henry Ward Beeeher 
said: 

"Never did two such orbs of experience meet in one hemisphere 
as the joy" (over the surrender of Lee) "and the sorrow of the same 
week in this land. The joy was as sudden as if no man had expected 
it, and as entrancing as if it had fallen a sphere from heaven. It 
rose up over sobriety, and swept business from its moorings, and ran 
down through the land in irresistible course. Men embraced each 
other in brotherhood that were strangers in the flesh. They sang or 
prayed ; or, deeper yet, many could only think thanksgiving and weep 
gladness. That peace was sure ; that government was firmer than ever ; 
that the land was cleansed of plague; that the ages were opening to ^ 
our footsteps, and we were to begin a march of blessings; that blood ^,../V 
was staunched and scowling enmities were sinking like storms beneath 
the horizon; that the dear fatherland, nothing lost, much gained, was 
to rise up in unexampled honor among the nations of the earth — 
these thoughts and that undistinguishable throng of fancies, and 
hopes, and desires, and 3^earnings, that filled the soul with tremblings 
like the heated air of midsummer days — all these kindled up such a 
surge of joy as no words may describe. 



. i'-i^JBtij^' .h . 



278 Memorial Volume of 

"In one hour joy lay without a pulse, without a gleam of breath. 
A sorrow came that swept through the land as huge storms sweep 
through the forest and iield, rolling thunder along the sky, disheveling 
the flowers, daunting every singer in thicket or forest, and pouring 
blackness and darkness across the land and up the mountains. Did 
ever so many hearts, in so brief a time, touch two such boundless feel- 
ings? It was the uttermost of joy; the uttermost of sorrow — noon 
and midnight, without a space between." 



AMiililCAN HiSTOEX. 279 

XXIX. 
THE ASSASSINATION OF GARFIELD. 

Is it not a noteworthy fact that in all the attempts made upon 
the lives of our Presidents, the murderers have used the pistol? To 
do so with certainty it is necessary for the assassin to approach very 
close to his victim, and this proximity must surely prevent escape 
after the deed is done. In Europe the favorite weapon has been the 
dagger, as in the assaults on Henry IV., Carnot, Empress Elizabeth 
of Austria, and the Shah of Persia ; or by the bomb, as in the attempts 
on Alexander II. and Xapoleon III. This method of attack appears 
remarkable when we consider how much more certain is the rifle — as 
used to assassinate Governor Goeble, of Kentucky, and the fact that 
the rifle is more deadly, the use of it from an upper window may 
increase the chance of escape of the culprit. In Europe, where 
attempts to kill rulers is not a very uncommon thing, it is still more 
strange that recourse is had to the knife and pistol, since so few are 
successful, when it must be known to the would-be assassin that a 
ruler cannot by any means be protected, when passing through a street, 
from a rifle bullet fired from such a vantage point as a second or 
third story window. 

Every Man's Hand Against Assassins. — The killing of Lincoln 
was by the use of a pistol, and the deed was as well planned perhaps) 
as it could have been, for the assassin succeeded in escaping, but 
his identity being fully revealed, his apprehension was certain, as it 
must always be of villains who perpetrate such nameless iniquities, 
for all the world will aid in hunting them down. 

The sixteen years of peace that had intervened gave a sense of 
security, for the crime of assassination had gone completely out of 
public mind. Political campaigns had been as exciting and rancor- 



280 Memorial Volume of 

ous as theretofore, but no one thought of murder as a means to over- 
come or harm political party or adversary. A bitter contention within 
the Eepublican ranks, with Conkling on one side and Blaine on the 
other, a battle of speech and influence, between "stalwarts'' and 
"half-breeds," distressed Eepublican leaders by causing them to fear 
for their party's supremacy, but there was no suggestion in this of 
any crime premeditated, or that the rivalry, fierce as it was, would 
result in anything more serious than a deposition from leadership of 
one of the factions. But often it is when security seems greatest that 
disaster befalls, and so it was with President Garfield. 

Murder Personified. — "Whoever shall hereafter draw a portrait 
of murder, if he will show it as it has been exhibited, where such 
example was least to have been looked for, let him not give it the 
grim visage of Moloch, the brow knitted by revenge, the face black 
with settled hate. Let him draw, rather, a decorous, smooth-faced, 
bloodless demon; not so much an example of human nature in its 
depravity and in its paroxysms of crime, as an infernal being, a fiend 
in the ordinary display and development of his character." 

Thus quoted Mr. Blaine in his oration on Garfield in the House 
of Eepresentatives on February 27, 1882. He had been with the 
President, walking arm-in-arm through the waiting room of the Penn- 
sylvania Eailroad Station on the morning of July 2, 1881, when 
Guitcau, creeping up behind, liad given the President his death wound. 
He had caught the stricken man as he fell; he had assisted him to 
a seat and had called for help ; and to all public men who had been 
affected by the blow against the chief executive, James G. Blaine, 
man of emotion and a poet's temperament, had felt the wound most 
deeply. 

The day on which Garfield was shot was bright, warm and 
beautiful. He was on his way to the station to go, with members of 
his Cabinet, to New York and thence to join his family at Elberon, 
N. J. He had been particularly cheerful during the drive to the 



American History. 281 

station, and Tvas walking with springy step and well-raised head when 
two pistol shots rang out. The first did not strike him, the second hit 
him in the back, plowed through muscles and flesh and hid itself 
away to defy the search of surgeons while it ate out the life of the 
victim. 

The Battle with Death. — Guiteau, the assassin, did not attempt 
to escape. "Xow we will have a 'stalwart administration !' " he cried, 
as men sprang upon him and wrested the still smoking revolver from 
his hands. He was hurried to the police station before the few people 
around the depot could recover from the shock of the tragedy suffi- 
ciently to make a rush for him. There he was searched, and on him 
was found a letter in which the shooting of the President was referred 
to as "a sad necessity," and the hope was expressed that the action 
would "unite the Eepublican party and save the Eepublic." 

Garfield lingered for more than two months. The surgeons and 
physicians gave him the best attention that the medical science of 
that day had fitted them for; they searched diligently for the bullet, 
but, as the post-mortem developed, they searched in the wrong direc- 
tion and never found it. There were no X-rays twenty years ago; 
and antiseptics and other aids of surgeons were practically or per- 
haps wholly unknown. Day by day the country alternated between 
hope and fear. Favorable reports were issued, only to be followed 
by unfavorable ones. For a long while the wounded man lay in the 
White House to which he had been taken immediately after the 
shooting ; but the terrific heat of the summer caused the medical men 
to grant his oft-repeated request to be taken to within sight of the 
sea, and on September 6 he was taken to Elberon, X. J. Xine days later 
blood poisoning developed, and, after a few hours of unconscious- 
ness, he died peacefully on September 19. His body was taken back 
to Washington by special train and lay in state in the rotunda of the 
Capitol for two days. A long special train took the body to Cleve- 
land, Ohio, where it was buried beside Lake Erie on September 26. 



283 Memorial Volume op 

The Trial of Guiteau. — The attorneys for Guiteau, the assassin, 
advanced the plea of insanity, and a hard fight for his life was made 
in a trial that was remarkable in many ways. But the verdict was 
death, and Guiteau was hanged in Washington City, June 30, 1882, 
and his body being dissected, the skeleton was placed in the Medical 
Museum, where it still remains, though not labeled. 

The memorial services in honor of Garfield, held in the hall 
of the House of Eepresentatives on February 27, 1883, were the 
most splendidly solemn that the history of the United States has so 
far recorded. Mr. Blaine was the orator ; the audience was comprised 
of President Arthur, the Cabinet, all members of the Diplomatic 
Corps, distinguished men from all over the country, and people from 
all walks of life. 

Blaine's Famous Oration on Garfield.— Mr. Blaine's oration was 
a masterpiece. He followed the life of his subject closely from boy- 
hood to the grave, illuminating the biography with brilliant anecdotes 
that were at once dignified and full of the character of Garfield ; and 
his peroration was such a burst of poetry, such a symphony of phrase, 
as has seldom been heard: 

"Great in life, he was surpassingly great in death. For no 
cause, in the very frenzy of wantonness and wickedness, by the red 
hand of murder, he was thrust from the full tide of this world's 
interest, from its hopes, its aspirations, its victories, into the visible 
presence of death — and he did not quail. :N"ot alone for one short 
moment, in which, stunned and dazed, he could give up life, hardly 
aware of its relinquishment, but through days of deadly languor, 
through weeks of agony, that was not less agony because silently 
borne, with clear sight and calm courage he looked into his open 
grave. What blight and ruin met his anguished eyes, whose lips 
may tell; what brilliant, broken plans, what bafflecl, high ambitions, 
what sundering of strong, warm, manhood's friendship, what bitter 
rending of sweet household ties! 



American History. 283 

''Behind him a proud, expectant nation, a great host of sustain- 
ing friends, a cherished and happy mother, wearing the full, rich 
honors of her earty toil and tears ; the wife of his youth, whose whole 
life lay in his; the little boys not yet emerged from childhood's day 
of frolic; the fair young daughter; the sturdy sons just springing 
into closest companionship, claiming every daj', and every day reward- 
ing, a father's love and care; and in his heart the eager, rejoicing 
power to meet all demands. And his soul was not shaken. His coun- 
trymen were thrilled with instant, profound and universal sympathy. 
Masterful in his mortal weakness, he became the centre of a nation's 
love, enshrined in the prayers of a world. But all the love and all 
the sympathy could not share with him his suffering. He trod the 
winepress alone. With unfaltering front he faced death. With 
unfailing tenderness he took leave of life. Above the demoniac hiss 
of the assassin's bullet he heard the voice of God. With simple resig- 
nation he bowed to the divine decree. 

"As the end drew near his early craving for the sea returned. 
The stately mansion of power had been to him the wearisome hospital 
of pain, and he begged to be taken from his prison walls, from its 
oppressive, stifling air, from its homelessness and its hopelessness. 
Gently, silently, the love of a great people bore the pale sufferer to 
the longed-for healing of the sea, to live or die, as God should will, 
within sight of the heaving billows, within sound of its manifold 
voices. With wan, fevered face, tenderly lifted to the cooling breeze, 
he looked out wistfully on the ocean's changing wonders; on its 
fair sails; on its restless waves rolling shoreward, to break and die 
beneath the noonday sun; on the red clouds of evening, arching low 
to the horizon; on the serene and shining pathway of the stars. Let 
us think that his dying eyes read a mystic meaning which only the 
rapt and parting soul may know. Let us believe that in the silence 
of the receding world he heard the great waves breaking on a farther 
shore and felt already upon his wasted brow the breath of the eternal 
morning." 





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MEN OF MARK. THE CI^OSING OF THE CAREER OF JAMES G. BI^AINE. 

288 




I^AST VIKW UK THE REMAINS UK PRESIDENT OARKIEtD. 



2S9 




THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT GARFIEI.D. IMPORTANT INCIDENTS 
IN THE LIFE OF JAMES G. BLAINE. 

290 



I 




PRESIDENT THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 
291 




PRESIDENT ROOSEVKI.T AND FAMILY. 




ROOSEVELT ISSUING A FIELD ORDER, CUBA. 
292 




Copyrighted by Rockwocd, New York. 

COI^ONEt ROOSEVELT IN THE FIELD, CUBA. 



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300 



OUR HERO PRESIDENT 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



The Story of His Strenuous Life as a Student, Plainsman, Hunter, 

Author, Politician, Reformer, Governor, 

Soldier and Statesman 



CHIVALRY, MAGNANIMITY, DAUNTLESS COURAGE, IN- 
FLEXIBLE HONESTY, LOFTY PURPOSE, 
MAKE UP THE MAN 



What the Nation has Reason to Expect from 
so Resolute a Chief 



(301) 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



(302) 



THEODORE R005EUELT. 



XXX. 
OUR HERO PRESIDENT. 

Alfred the chivalrous, England's boast for a thousand years; 
Charlemagne, courier of militant Christianity, hero in the hour of 
extremity; Barbarossa, ruler over adversity, strongest when greatest 
perils beset; Henry of Navarre, knightly and impetuous; Charles 
XII., invincible of spirit, resolute when his star of destiny paled; 
Peter the Great, strenuous, industrious, indomitable; Frederick the 
Great who raised the flower victory from the dust of defeat ; Lincoln, 
the glorified, who faltered not before mighty trials of state. — These 
are world examples of the resistless power of determination co-operat- 
ing with genius of leadership. Tremendous events never fail to bring 
forth men to meet and successfully use them as means for promoting 
the cause of country, people, civilization. The occasion was a measure- 
less one that elevated Theodore Eoosevelt to the position of Chief 
Magistrate of the strongest government of the earth; the soundless 
grief of a nation's woe : the sorrowings of a people bereft of a beloved 
President, whose precious life was extinguished by the fell hand of a 
worse than hellish traitor. It was amid the gloom of national anguish 
— the red terrorism of assassination, the blood of martyrdom, and cries 
of horror that will re-echo up and down the ways of centuries — that 
Eoosevelt was called suddenly to take the place of the stricken chief- 
tain; and in an hour the tear-stained faces of 80,000,000 Americans 
acclaimed him with loyal hearts and patriotic devotion. The exigency, 
great, alarming, brought forth a leader full panoplied to meet it ; the 
fear of panic, the dread of timid investment, and the spectre of politi- 

(303) 



304 Memorial Volume oe 

cal anarchy was quickly dispelled by national consciousness that the 
standard, though crimsoned and fallen in the dust of a people's alarm, 
was recovered and raised high where all might see it waving, by a hand 
and heart as daring, knightly, sturdy, and wholly American as that 
of Theodore Roosevelt. In him there seems to flow, in well-propor- 
tioned comminglement, the heroic blood of Alfred, Charlemagne, 
Peter, Frederick, Henry, and Barbarossa, but there is no less certainly 
to be discerned the temper of wise statesmanship that animates, and 
the sagacious charity, the splendid magnanimity, the power to feel 
the public heart, that immortalized Lincoln and distinguished 
McKinley. 

How Greatness Masks Itself. — Eeal greatness manifests itself 
in many ways, just as it wears the masks of many characters. One 
may be gentle, charitable, domestic, deferential, and yet when put 
to the test of power the deeply covered seed of tyranny may quickly 
flower into fullest growth. So may one ever animated by a vigorous 
spirit, a fearless, seemingly adventurous, tireless and audacious leader 
in escapades that test the nerve of courage, be as suddenly quieted to 
the most serious, just, and approved judgments by the exigency of 
heavy responsibilities. And history is illuminated by so many illustra- 
tions of these contrasts of character playing impressive parts for 
human and for national betterment, that we have come to expect 
most from those who exhibit the most striking characteristics. The 
boy who at play strikes the ball farthest, or in the race outstrips 
his challenger, has that ambition and capacity which will make him 
push resolutely in the competitions of life, and it is this push that 
wins the goal. These observations are unavoidable when we consider 
the life of Theodore Eoosevelt, since his has been a peculiarly marked 
and stirring one, for a parallel to which we may indeed search history 
in vain. 

Roosevelt as an Author. — It is in many pursuits, athlete, reformer, 
politician, statesman, official, and book-writer that President Roosevelt 



American History. 305 

has proved his versatility, and remarkable capacities. In not a few- 
respects he betra3'S iSTapoleonic character, but without a taint of those 
faults of Xapoleon that led to his overthrow. And that Eoosevelt 
has a studious, well-balanced, even philosophical mind, is thoroughly 
manifested by his literary ambitions and creations. A college grad- 
uate, he has the theoretical training, and winning honors in competi- 
tive examinations he has the ambition to excel in purely intellectual 
undertakings, as well also a knowledge of the practical side of life. 

Xotwithstanding his diversified public activities Roosevelt must 
have devoted himself assiduously to literary labors, in order to have pro- 
duced the following books, viz: In 1881, the year after his college 
graduation, he published "The Xaval War of 1812." Although he was 
only twenty-three years of age when he wrote this work, it is accepted 
as the most exhaustive, graphic, sterling and stirring history on that 
subject that has ever been given to the world. After writing "The War 
of 1812," Eoosevelt went West and settled upon a ranch in Dakota, 
where he became a rancher and accepted willingly all the hardships 
and rough experiences such a life must endure. Having thus quali- 
fied himself for the task, he wrote "Hunting Trips of a Ranchman," 
which appeared in 1885. So thrilling are many of the adventures 
therein recounted, and so true is the plainsman's life painted, that 
this book must take rank with the ver}' best works having "the West" 
for a subject. 

His Most Important Works. — His residence a ranch for quite four 
years, with little to disturb his naturally reflective mind, Roosevelt 
employed much of his time in a study of national questions, and of 
distinguished public men, their characters and services. In pursuing 
these politico-biographic investigations he wrote and published in 1886 
"The Life of Thomas H. Benton," and in the following year appeared 
from his pen "The Life of Gouvemeur Morris," both being issued in 
the "American Statesmen Series," to which is admitted the produc- 
tions of only the best writers. The next year, 1888, was published his 
20 



306 Memorial Volume of 

most popular work, "Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail," which though 
a record of facts and observation, is as interesting as any of Cooper's 
'Tieather Stocking Tales." It is a book redolent with the odors, 
abounding with the adventures, and vitalizing and exciting with the 
wild freedom which the plains suggest. Subsequently there have 
appeared from his versatile and virile pen the following works, in the 
order named, "The Winning of the West," "History of New York 
City," "The Strenuous Life," "American Ideals," "The Wilderness 
Hunter," "Oliver Cromwell," and "The Eough Eiders." In addition to 
this list of what may be called his most pretentious book works, he has 
written and published in magazines essays on "Reform Methods in 
Politics," "Stay-at-Homes in Polities," "Machine Rule," "Partisan- 
ship and What It Entails," and "Political Crooks." In these essays, 
which have had an extensive circulation, he gives utterance to the 
boldest declarations against all the evils that afSict the national, state 
and municipal well-being, and vigorously assails the abuses of cor' 
porate institutions. A measure of the man, and the President, may 
be taken by these sentences from his essays : 

Political Epigrams and Wise Counsel. — "The man who debauches 
our public life, whether by malversation of funds in office, by the actual 
bribery of legislators, or by the corrupt use of the offices as spoils 
wherewith to reward the unworthy or vicious for their noxious and 
interested activity in the baser walks of political life — this man is a 
greater foe to our well-being as a nation than is even the defaulting 
cashier of a bank or the betrayer of a private trust." 

"We need fearless criticism of our public men and public parties. 
We need unsparing condemnation of all persons and all principles that 
count for evil in our public life." 

"Wrongs should be strenuously and fearlessly denounced. Evil 
principles and evil men should be condemned. The politician who 
cheats or swindles, or the newspaper man who lies in any form, should 
be made to feel that he is an object of scorn for all honest men." 



American History. 307 

"There are plenty of scoundrels always ready to try to belittle 
reform movements or to bolster up existing iniquities in the name of 
Americanism." 

"The man who is content to let polities go from bad to worse, jest- 
ing at the corruption of politicians ; the man who is content to see the 
maladministration of justice without an immediate and resolute effort 
to reform it, is shirking his duty, and is preparing the way for infinite 
woe in the future." 

"If we had no independence we should always be running the risk 
of the most degraded kind of despotism — the despotism of the party 
boss and the party machine." 

"The prevention of blackmail and corruption, the repression of 
crime and violence, safeguarding of life and property, securing honest 
elections and renewing efficient and punishing inefficient public ser- 
vice, are not and cannot properly be made questions of party differ- 
ences." 

"Every man who wishes well to his country is in honor bound to 
take an active part in political life." 

"In public life we need not only men who are able to work in and 
through their parties, but also upright, fearless, rational independents, 
who will deal impartial justice to all men and all parties." 

"When a partisan political organization becomes merely an associa- 
tion for purposes of plunder and patronage, it may be a menace instead 
of a help to a community." 

"Cynicism in public life is a curse, and when a man has lost the 
power of enthusiasm for righteousness it will be better for him and 
the country if he abandons public life." 

'rBut the best way to prevent big corporations from making contri- 
butions for improper purposes is simply to elect as public servants not 
professional denouncers of corporations — for such men are in practice 
usually their most servile tools — but men who say, and mean, that they 



308 Memorial Volume op 

will neither be for nor against corporations; that, on the one hand, 
they will not be frightened from doing them justice by popular clamor, 
or, on the other hand, led by any interest whatsoever into doing them 
more than justice." 

Eoosevelt as President is not different from Eoosevelt the man, 
inflexible to the right, courageous, impartial, hewing to the line, broad- 
minded, able, magnanimous and resolute in his great purpose to ignore 
sections, and to be President of the whole country, to the end that we 
may be a thoroughly united people, in sentiment, affection, interest and 
purpose. 

His Birth and Ancestry. — Theodore Roosevelt was born in New 
York City at the family mansion, 28 East Twentieth street, October 
27, 1858. He is a Knickerbocker of the Knickerbockers, being seventh 
in descent from Klaus IMartenson Ptoosevelt, who with his wife, emi- 
grated from the Netherlands to New Amsterdam, in 1G49. For two 
and a half centuries the descendants of this couple have lived in New 
York — burghers and patroons, — always serving their city in some 
patriotic capacity. In revolutionary times New York chose a Eoosevelt 
to act with Alexander Hamilton in the United States Constitutional 
Convention. Eoosevelt street in New York was so named because it 
was a cow-lane in the original Eoosevelt farm. Eoosevelt Hospital 
was a gift of a recent member of the family. Mingled with the 
good old Dutch blood there are strains in the family of the best Scotch, 
Irish and French Huguenot. The President's father, Theodore Eoose- 
velt a lawyer and judge, was one of the most prominent men in 
New York during the Civil War. He had great strength and nobility 
of character combined with a certain easy joyousness. To him more 
than to anyone else New York owes its system of newsboys' lodging 
houses. He was a power in the Young Men's Christian Association and 
one of the principal organizers of the Bureau of United Charities. 
The Allotment Commission. — During the Civil War it was Eoose- 
velt Sr., who established the famous ''Allotment Commission," which 



American History. 309 

enabled soldiers in the field to allot and send to their families at home 
a certain portion of their month's pay. He held various positions of 
public trust, but such was his high sense of the duty of the citizen to 
the state that he never would accept any payment for his services. The 
President's mother was Miss Martha Bullock. She came from the old 
Southern family of Bullocks, which produced a famous Governor of 
Georgia, and the builder of the Confederate Privateer ''^Alabama." So 
in his veins runs Eevolutionary and Confederate blood. Science tells 
us "we are the sum of our antecedents and surroundings." And in 
our hero President is easily traced the fighting strain that made him 
'■'court death like a lover,'"' at San Juan Hill. As a boy he was small 
and frail, with weak eyes, giving little promise of the amazing vigor of 
his later life. His father who, it is said, understood the science of 
bringing up boys — and that science he comprised in the word luorl-, 
hard work and plenty of it — early taught Theodore that if he would 
amount to anything in the world, he must cultivate physical strength. 
So he began early in life with that prodigious perseverance of his to 
build up a vigorous constitution by an outdoor life. As a boy he spent 
all of his summers at the Eoosevelt farm, Oyster Bay, Long Island, 
where he swam, rowed, and tramped the hills for pastime, collecting 
and cataloging the birds of his neighborhood. "I was determined," he 
said, "to make a man of myself." And to a friend who spoke to him 
about being a city bo}^ he replied : "I belong as much to the country as 
to the city. I owe all my vigor to the country." He was tutored at 
home; but also attended a private school — Cutters, one of the most 
famous of its day. When eleven years old he made his first trip to 
Europe. Even at that age, says Mr. George Cromwell, of Philadel- 
phia, *Tie was a leader. A masterful, commanding little fellow, who 
seemed to have a peculiar quality of his own for making his playmates 
obey him — not at all because we were afraid, but because we wanted to, 
and somehow felt sure we would have a good time and have lots of fun 
if we did as he said." 



310 Memorial Volume or 

Roosevelt as a Boy. — The lad's principal amusements in the winter 
were skating and coasting in Central Park. His literar}^ taste devel- 
oped a fondness for the stories of Captain Mayne Eeid and he mani- 
fested an intense liking for the Indian tales of Fenimore Cooper. 
After two years at a preparatory school he went to Harvard in 1875, 
and is the third president to graduate from that University. Ex- 
Mayor Josiah Quincy of Boston, who was in college with Roosevelt, 
says of him : 

"He exhibited in his college days most of the traits of character 
which he has exhibited in after years on the larger stage of political 
life. In appearance and manner he has changed remarkably little in 
twenty years and I should say that his leading characteristic in col- 
lege was the very quality of strenuousness, which is now so associated 
with his public character. In whatever he did he showed unusual 
energy and the same aggressive earnestness which has carried him so 
far in public life. 

His College Life. — '"Eoosevelt at school exhibited a maturity of 
character, if not of intellectual development, greater than that of most 
of his classmates, and was looked upon as one of the notable members 
of his class." Both his fellows and his teachers say he was much above 
the average as a student. He was just as original, just as reliant on 
his own judgment, as now. On the subject of athletics I will use his 
own words : "By the time I entered Harvard College I was able to take 
my part in whatever sports I liked. I wrestled and sparred and ran 
a great deal while at college, and although I never came in first, I 
got more good out of the exercise than those who did, because I 
immensely enjoyed it and never injured myself. I was fond of 
wrestling and boxing; I think I was a good deal of a wrestler, and 
though I never won a championship, yet more than once I won my 
trial heats and got into the final round. I was captain of my polo 
team at one time, but since I left college I have taken most of my 
exercise in the 'cow-country' or in the mountains hunting." 



American History. 311 

He was for a time editor of the Advocate, the college paper, and 
was deeply absorbed in history and natural history ; in the latter study 
he took honors. Although well born and a welcome guest in the society 
of exclusive Boston he was absolutely free from snobbishness, as 
is illustrated by the following anecdote: 

"Roosevelt," said a classmate to him one day, "why do you asso- 
ciate with so and so ?" 

"Well," was the reply, "he is a good boxer, a good wrestler and 
chain lightning in mathematics." 

"But he is below you in social position," was urged. "His father 
is a carpenter, or something of that sort." 

Young Roosevelt was on fire in a moment. 

'TTou're a cad !" he retorted, "nobody but a cad would make such 
a suggestion. That man is your superior in three lines of study ; he 
can outrow you and outjump you, so if there is any question of 
superiority or inferiority, you are distinctly the inferior." 

Upon leaving college one of the professors in speaking of him 
said: "Take the measure of your country by Roosevelt's success in 
politics." And the country has, to its honor be it said, not been found 
wanting in appreciation of his honesty, patriotism and high ideals. 

Climbing the Peaks of Switzerland. — After leaving college young 
Roosevelt spent a year in Europe, where he climbed the Matterhorn 
and the Jungfrau, and was made a member of the London Alpine 
Club. Upon his return to New York, barely twenty-three, he was ready 
to begin his lifework. He is described at that time as a "robust, sturdy 
shouldered, square jawed young man, five feet eight in height — born 
a fighter." 

An admirer writing of him in McClure's Magazine says: 

"He had no need to work, his income was ample to keep him in 
comfort, if not luxury, all his life. He might spend his summers in 
Newport and his winters on the Continent, and possibly win some fame 
as an amateur athlete and a society man, but rather than take the ease 



313 Memorial Volume op 

of a rich and purposeless man he craved the stir and action of public 
life, where he might be of real service to his country." 

His Career as an Author. — Before he was twenty-three Roosevelt 
had completed his work on the "Xaval War of 1812/'' which has since 
become a standard authority upon that eventful period of the nation's 
history, and a copy was placed, by authority, in the library of every 
American warship. It was characteristic of him that in his earliest 
literary effort he should take up the challenge of a British writer 
who had slandered American character and purpose. The book which 
excited him to anger was an elaborate history of the British Navy by 
James, in five volumes, which was accepted as a standard by Great 
Britain. To disprove the infamous charges James had preferred, 
Roosevelt went to Washington and plodded carefully through all the 
old, mildewed annals of the navy, which had been stored away in boxes 
where no one had touched them for two generations. He read therein 
accounts of battles as reported to the Navy Department by the captains 
themselves ; he also investigated all the official reports of them made in 
Europe. The result was a detailed, technical account of each naval 
engagement just as it had been fought, and with this reliable informa- 
tion acquired he used it to produce a work most valuable to real stu- 
dents of this period of our history. And it is a significant fact that 
the publishers of a new and great naval history of Great Britain, on a 
scale more elaborate than has ever been attempted before, have asked 
Mr. Roosevelt to write for it the account of the contest between Great 
Britain and the United States on the sea in 1813. 



American History. 313 

XXXI. 
ROOSEVELT'S ENTRY INTO POLITICS. 

For a time Mr. Koosevelt attempted the study of law with his 
uncle, Eobert B. Roosevelt; but politics attracted him irresistibly, for 
he then believed, as he subsequently declared : "Politics and war are the 
two biggest games that men can play at." 

In 1881 he attended his first primary. "I have always believed," 
he said, "that every man should join a political organization, and 
should attend the primaries; that he should not be content to be 
merely governed, but should do his part of that work." 

He was elected a member of the Xew York Assembly in 1881, the 
youngest member of that body, and was twice re-elected by large 
majorities. Modestly but unceasingly he made war on corrupt 
politics. "By many he was considered an assertive, well-meaning 
young man with correct ideas, absurd in practical politics — a sort of 
visiting delegate from the Y. M. C. A. trying to run the Albany Legis- 
lature, with its Thurlow Weed traditions, on a Sunday-school basis." 

He soon proved himself, however, a knock-down fighter, and, 
protected by his armor of fearless honesty, a man to be reckoned with 
and feared. He became Republican candidate for Speaker in his 
second Assembly year, and in the following year he was made chairman 
of the Committee on Cities. Then began the fight for reform, prepar- 
ing the way for the upheaval that came with the Lexow-Parkhurst- 
GoS investigation. 

Eow He Fought Corruption in the State. — Indeed, at Albany he 
played politics with the same cheery disregard for punishment, danger 
or future preferment that he showed on the bloody slope before San 
Juan. He had determined that the city government of New York 
needed purifying, and without delay he set about to purify it. It was 



314 Memorial Volume of 

nothing to him that he had a bitter majority of corrupt politicians to 
fight, nor that many of the newspapers of Xew York lampooned him 
unmercifully. He made friends and trusted them, wherein lies much 
of his success as a leader; and with the small but tremendously ener- 
getic and devoted band of workers which gathered under his standard 
he succeeded in passing the famous Eoosevelt Aldermanic bill, which 
deprived the City Council of IsTew York of the right to veto the 
Mayor's appointments, the provision under which Tweed and . his 
ringsters had wrought such perversions of the public will. This was 
the most important work he did in Albany, and, singularly enough, 
it made possible his own appointment years later as Police Commis- 
sioner. 

He also organized a committee to investigate the work of county 
officials in New York, as a result of which the County Clerk, who had 
been receiving $82,000 a year in fees, the Sheriff, who had been taking 
$100,000, and the Register, whose perquisites were also very large, all 
became salaried officials. At the same time Mr. Roosevelt urged a 
police investigation, and it would have been secured had he remained 
longer in the Legislature. During his entire service he fought every 
blackmailing scheme of dishonest politicians with untiring earnest- 
ness, and he insisted on civil service reform, and the endeavor to com- 
bine honesty and efficiency in the selection of all servants of the State. 

A Delegate to the Republican National Convention. — He first be- 
came prominent in national politics in 1884, when, recognized as a 
power in the State, he was made a delegate to the Republican National 
Convention, to lead the Edmunds forces in the Chicago convention of 
1884 ; and though opposed to Blaine, he refused to follow the bolters 
who went over to Cleveland, for he believed he could do nothing except 
through the regular party organization. 

He entered the campaign vigorously, made many speeches and 
then went West to his North Dakota ranch, where he spent two years 
hunting and writing. He killed big game at that time and wrote his 



American History. 315 

books on ''Eanch Life" and "The Winning of the West." Two 
years before, in 1884, occurred the great sorrow and tragedy of his 
life, when he lost his young wife, formerly Miss Alice Lee, of Boston, 
and his dearly beloved mother. They died in the same house, and 
within a few hours of each other. It was said that his self-control 
under the blow was marvelous, inspiring all with the deepest respect 
and admiration. 

Life on the Frontier.— Of his life on the frontier, in Northwest 
Dakota, he says: "I went out there to be one of them, not to show 
them what a New Yorker looked like. I dressed as my cowmen 
dressed ; I was armed as they were armed ; I ate what they ate ; if they 
slept on the ground, in the wet, I did the same, and if they had a dance 
and I was wanted I went. They expected me to be the other way, but 
because I was not I took them by surprise and won their confidence." 
The following story also explains how he won their admiration : 

He Subdues a Desperado. — Out West, in Montana, at a big 
round-up, the 'liad man," who always is present on such occasions, was 
known as "Long Ike." He had the reputation of being quick with 
his forefinger on the trigger and able to "whip his weight in wild 
cats," on account of his great muscular strength. He imposed upon 
people so long that he gradually got to believe in his own courage — 
for, in reality, he was as arrant a coward as ever passed himself off as 
a brave man. One of his favorite tricks was to line up alongside a 
drinking bar, select the filled glass of one of the men he thought he 
could bluff, and drain it. At this particular round-up Theodore 
Eoosevelt happened to be one of a party in the only place of shelter on 
the prairie — the saloon. A glass half filled with whisky had been 
poured out by a cowboy and placed in front of him. Long Ike reached 
out and took it, and so certain was he that the stranger would submit 
that he did not take the precaution to make his customlary bluff with 
his revolver. 

Before he could swallow the liquor Mr. Eoosevelt was on him like 



316 Memorial Volume oe 

a catamouiit. An expert wrestler, he threw the bully in a jiffy. Then 
he turned him over and stood him up and ran him out of doors, taking 
the revolver avray from him in the run. Ike was thrown again, harder 
than before, and could not get up for five minutes. When he did he 
was dazed and wondering. The style of attack was so quick, so 
unusual and so vigorous that he was afraid to resent it in the 'T^ad 
man" way even had he possessed the nerve — and his shooting-iron. 
He sneaked out of camp. 

The young man with the eyeglasses and the gleaming teeth 
enjoyed the respect of the cowboys from that day forward. 

"We next find him a candidate for Mayor of New York City, 
"leading a forlorn hope" against Henry George, the United Labor 
nominee, and Abram S. Hewitt, Democratic candidate. Hewitt was 
elected, though Eoosevelt made a strong fight. 

A Civil Service Commissioner. — For six years, beginning in 1889, 
four years under President Harrison and two under President 
Cleveland, he was president of the Civil Service Commission. This 
was work quite to his liking — work for the correction of public abuses, 
where he met the keenest opposition, and in which he was compelled 
to grapple with every stripe of politician. 

When he accepted the position he was firmly convinced that the 
spoils-monger was as bad as the bribe-giver, and he fought him publicly 
and privately, in Congress and out, so that before he left the com- 
mission he had added more than 20,000 new places to the scope of the 
Civil Service Law, at the same time enforcing the law as it never had 
been enforced before. 

He resigned this position to become Police Commissioner in 1895 
under Mayor Strong, who considered him the best material to give 
strength and vitality to the principles of reform, upon Avhich he had 
been elected. 

To a friend who expressed surprise that a man of his scholarly 
attainments should enter a police crusade, he said: "I thought the 



American History. 317 

storm centre was in New York, so I came here; it is a great piece of 
practical work. I like to take hold of work that has been done by a 
Tammany leader and do it as well by approaching it from the opposite 
direction. The thing that attracted me to it was that it was to be done 
in the hurly-burly, for I don't like cloister life." 

Within a month he was the most hated as well as the best beloved 
man in New York. To be certain that his police orders were obeyed 
and that the reforms he recommended were carried out, he pursued 
the simple but effective method of visiting the patrolmen of the force 
on their beats at night, very much as the good Haroun al Rachid 
visited the citizens of Bagdad, to discover their occupations and their 
plottings. A very few such visits, with their resultant punishments 
upon delinquents, were enough to give the average policeman a whole- 
some regard for Mr. Roosevelt's authority and watchfulness. He 
established a policy of strict enforcement of the Excise Law, compelling 
saloons to close on Sundays, which aroused much opposition, but it 
put a stop to police protection of vice and restored discipline to the 
force. 

As Assistant Secretary of the Navy. — It was his appreciation of 
the great need of military readiness — whether to prevent war or to 
maintain it — that induced Roosevelt to accept the position of Assistant 
Secretaryship of the Navy in 1896. His first work was to familiarize 
himself with the possible needs of the navy in the event of war. After 
that he began to buy guns, ammunition and provisions. He insisted 
upon an appropriation of $800,000, with which to buy powder and balls 
for target practice; and afterwards $500,000 more for the same pur- 
pose. His experience among the big game of the West had convinced 
him of the necessity of good marksmanship, and he realized that to be- 
come an expert shot one must practice, and consequently waste powder 
and lead in firing big guns of battleships as well as rifles by infantry. 
When war with Spain threatened, he hurried the work on the new 
warships; he directed that the crew of every vessel be recruited to 



318 Memorial Volume of 

its full complement, and crammed the bins of every naval supply 
station with coal in anticipation of an emergency. "If it had not 
been for Eoosevelt/' said Senator Cushman K. Davis, then chairman of 
the Senate Committee on Foreign Eolations, "we should not have 
been able to strike the blow that we did at Manila." It needed just 
Eoosevelt's energy and promptness; he called it "sharpening the 
tools of the navy," and when they were sharpened and war was 
actually declared, he said, "There is nothing more for me to do, I 
have got to get into the fight myself." 

Accordingly he sent in his resignation, but not until he had recom- 
mended Dewey to the command of the Asiatic Squadron, and upon 
request received permission to organize a regiment of Western Eough 
Eiders, with rendezvous at San Antonio, Texas, of which Dr. Leonard 
Wood, an old college chum, was made colonel, and Eoosevelt was 
quite content to take the office of lieutenant-colonel. This regiment 
was ready for the first expedition to Cuba, but there were delays, most 
vexatious, that kept it from moving to the front. Eestless beyond com- 
trol, Eoosevelt telegraphed day by day to every prominent adminis- 
tration officer imploring that his regiment might be sent to Tampa, 
but these entreaties failing he sought an interview with Mrs. McKinley 
and begged her intercession with the President that an order be issued 
to have his regiment join the army of invasion. After the order he 
had so earnestly prayed for was finally given, the Washington authori- 
ties refused to allow mounted troops to go to Cuba, so that another 
mind-racking delay was encountered, and it seemed to Eoosevelt that 
he had been purposely detained. 

He Seizes a Train. — A second time he got orders to move, first 
to Tampa, and then to join General Joe Wheeler's Fifth Army Corps 
in the proposed invasion. His regiment was in camp ten miles from 
Tampa, to reach which port with expedition he boldly seized an entire 
train, and jumping on the engine himself he compelled the engineer 
to start. Everything was confuson when he reached Tampa, for the 



American History. 319 

army organization had been so hasty as to still show its great imperfec- 
tions; finding that there v/as little likelihood of getting to Cuba soon 
sliould he wait for an assignment to a transport he promptly placed 
his regiment on board the nearest vessel. But he was not yet to have 
his restless spirit satisfied, for just before the time set for his sailing, 
a report came that Cervera with a fleet of powerful cruisers had been 
sighted in American waters, and to start out a fleet of transports 
under such dangerous conditions was a responsibility the government 
refused to take. 

In the Thick of Action at Last. — In a few days the alarming 
reports of the enemy's proximity were disproved, and Roosevelt with 
his regiment was transferred to another transport, which with the 
fleet, convoyed by warships, set sail with General Shaffer's army of 
20,000 troops for Santiago. It happened, through his energy and reso- 
lution, that Eoosevelt's regiment was the very first to land in Cuba, 
for, following the same tactics of boldness and self-initiation, he got 
his men ashore without waiting detailed orders. 

On the first night of the landing Eoosevelt began the march to 
the front. He passed General Lawton, who, under orders from Gen- 
eral Shaffer, was holding the advance guard position of the American 
army. 

It is said that Lieutenant-Colonel Eoosevelt passed the extreme 
outpost without orders and began the Las Guasimas fight at day- 
light of the next morning. When General Shaffer received the news 
later in the day of the Eough Eiders' encounter, which was of a sensa- 
tional character, he was not pleased, for he had been fold that they 
had been cut to peices. Shaffer swore roundly at the Eough Eiders 
and declared that he would 'Turing that damned cowboy regiment so 
far back in the rear" that it would never get another chance at the 
enemy during the whole campaign. Two hours afterward, however, 
he received further news and wrote a most flattering and compli- 
mentary note to Lieutenant-Colonel Eoosevelt, congratulating him 
upon the brilliant success of his attack. 



320 Memorial Volume of 

During the entire campaign, Colonel Roosevelt made every effort 
to get his regiment to the front, and on July 1, with the Rough Riders 
moving in columns of twos through a densely forested roadway lead- 
ing to the "Bloody Angle," on San Juan Hill, and while his men 
were falling wounded around him, with shells bursting almost at 
their feet, the gallant Roosevelt answered the salutation of a war 
correspondent's "Hello, there!" with a wave of his hand, shouting: 

"Isn't it glorious to be here ?" 

His Magnanimity and Patriotism. — Where the battle raged 
fiercest Roosevelt was at his best. The greater the danger the deeper 
his joy. Whistling bullets were music. Bursting shells a part of war's 
anthem in his ears. The more desperate the charge, the more his 
patriotism flamed into action. Like Sheridan at Five Forks he 
courted death like a lover. 

When soldiers wrote home of his brave deeds there was always 
a "P. S." telling how he gave his bed to sick soldiers; how he bought 
food for the boys when rations were low ; how he cut the red tape hold- 
ing up train loads of provisions ; how he nursed his men like a brother, 
took their dying messages and said the last good-bye — these and the 
thousand other deeds known only to God and the angels were written 
about, scratched on bits of powder-stained paper and sent home to be 
read and reread all over the land, in Western camps and city palaces. 
Tears fell by a thousand firesides. The humblest backwoods ranch- 
man, the most desolate mother whose dead boy rested under the wil- 
lows, knew that they all had a great and powerful friend near to the 
government, who was a friend indeed, their friend, and he would 
never forget them. He had nursed their wounded heroes and had 
written words of sympathy which they framed between Lincoln and 
Washington. 

Every one, from the half-breed child of the Rio Grande to gov- 
ernors of States, knows all about the man who in sorrow and busy 
loneliness now bears the nation's burden at the White House. 



American History. 321 

It is true that he is a man of many ideas, but always a man of 
the people. In every position he has made friends from the start. It 
may be truly said of him, as of Washington, 

First in war, first in peace, 

First in the hearts of his countrymen. 

What President was ever so personally near to so many classes 
of people? On the plains he was one of the cowboys around him. 
In mountains he held his own with the best of native hunters of big 
game. In battle he rode ahead of the line. 

Generous Comradeship with His Men. — After the war was 
over and he had returned, to be honored by the country, wined and 
dined in the mansions of the rich, he still remembered the boys of 
the regiment. When they came to New York and painted the town 
red, spent their savings, and found themselves adrift without friends 
or money, Eoosevelt opened his big house to them at Oyster Bay, 
entertained them, put on the old uniform, told them stories, and sent 
them home with their fares paid, and a bit of "chink" in their pockets. 

But the great day of a lifetime was when these cowboys of the 
plains saw their friend return to them on special trains, with senators, 
generals and statesmen, he the biggest of them, yet the same friend 
as of old. 

And he tarried with them, told them new stories, rode their 
deadliest high-kicking bronchos, wrestled with them as he had years 
before up in the "cow country," but was always a gentleman, and able 
to hold his own with professors, " broncho busters" or governors on all 
subjects and specialties. He never forgot the women folks, some still 
wearing black for their dead, nor the half-naked children tumbling 
over the adoKe floors of the ranch headquarters. 

And now we see this man of the people bearing with dignity the 
honors of the White House. The science of government has been 
the study of his life. Well equipped, having wide experience in the 
21 



323 Memorial Volume op 

administration of affairs as governor, in the navy office, and as leader 
of troops, he will have a chance to let the people admire the other 
qualities in him that have been long waiting for a call to executive 
action. 

What must be the thoughts of this masterful man of lofty aims 
and noble ambition in such an hour as this ! His books are many, and 
in them are recorded his best thoughts on public policy, legislation, and 
ideal government. 

When young Eoosevelt left Harvard, radiant with university hon- 
ors, and made a pilgrimage over Europe on foot, swimming rivers and 
climbing mountains, his final achievement was scaling the Matterhorn, 
its mighty dome overlooking half of Europe. 

To-day he stands on a still greater eminence, and he has the sup- 
port of countr}^ and government. There is no reason for anxiety. It 
is believed that now, as in the past, Mr. Roosevelt will prove himself a 
wise and triumphant leader, that he will administer the laws with mod- 
eration and force, and bring new prosperity and glory to the nation. 

In this faith the people will uphold him to a man. 



American History. 323 

XXXII. 

ROOSEVELT SUCCEEDS TO THE PRESIDENCY. 

A chivalrous gentleman, a patriot, loyal and wholly undefiled, am- 
bitious, but devoid of jealous}-, it may be said vrith truth, no citizen, 
whetlier of high or of low degree more sincerely lamented, more deeply 
grieved, or was more profoundly shocked by the awful crime that 
removed from life his beloved and distinguished predecessor, than 
Theodore Eoosevelt. It is not often, in these days of political strife 
and intense aspiration for place that the outworn injunction, "let the 
office seek the man,^' is permitted to obtain. But it is an indisputable 
truth that Eoosevelt had no desire to be Vice-President; indeed, he 
shrank from the tender that was made by the Eepublican managers, 
and stoutly resisted their importunities until refusal to accept the prof- 
fered nomination threatened to place him in a position of antagonism 
to his party. He yielded at length purely to patriotic duty, as he con- 
ceived it, but when he became the nominee, with characteristic enthu- 
siasm he threw himself into the campaign, and led the fight with an 
energy never equaled except by Bryan, whose speech-making powers 
were the wonder of the world. 

Roosevelt's Sorrow Over the Tragedy. — When the news of the 
assault on President ]\IcKinley reached him Eoosevelt was on a vaca- 
tion expedition, which he immediately abandoned and rushed to the 
side of the stricken chieftain, to aid, to console, or to do whatever the 
necessities of the hour might require. When favorable bulletins of the 
surgeons and doctors told that the woimded President would live, no 
one was more joyous, or hailed the glad tidings with higher satisfac- 
tion than Eoosevelt. Optimistic by nature, and with the best of reasons 
for believing that McKinley would recover, and wishing to relieve the 
stricken President from any embarrassment which his continued pres- 



324 Memorial Volume op 

ence by the bedside might give, as indicating an anticipation of a fatal 
termination, Eoosevelt returned to the Adirondacks and resumed the 
hunting sports which the tragedy had interrupted. 

How He Received the Fatal Tidings. — The sudden change in 
President McKinley's condition was reported to Eoosevelt by courier, 
who found him far from a railroad, in the heart of the mountains. 
On the instant the sorrowful news was imparted he waited not a 
moment to start upon a flying journey back to Buffalo. It mattered 
not to him that it was midnight, and very dark when the message came, 
or that the way led through the dense forest, and was almost impass- 
able by reason of heavy rains now steadily falling. Jumping into a 
small road-wagon, little serviceable for such a dashing ride, he urged 
the driver to push on with all possible dispach, through thick darkness, 
over dangerous obstructions, and when the driver showed fear of dis- 
aster, Eoosevelt plied the whip himself and continued the mad dash 
reckless of results, until by a wonderful fortune he was brought to the 
nearest railroad station, thirty-five miles from the place in the camp 
in the woods where he had taken the vehicle, and there learned that 
the President was dead. 

Waiting trains, special trains, flying engines, carried him with 
the utmost speed towards Buffalo, where he arrived Saturday noon, 
nine hours after the final act of the awful tragedy. 

Roosevelt Takes the Oath of Office. — Eeaching Buffalo, Eoosevelt 
drove quickly to the Milburn residence to pay respect to the dead Presi- 
dent, for whom he grieved with a sincerity none may ever doubt. At 
half-past three o'clock p. m., in the house of Ansley Wilcox, 641 Del- 
aware avenue, the oath of office of President of the United States was 
administered by Judge Herzel to Eoosevelt, who after being thus ele- 
vated to the highest position that man can hold, with dignified solem- 
nity made the following memorable utterance, in the presence of all 
the members of the Cabinet and many other prominent persons : 

"In this hour of deep and national bereavement I wish to state 



American History. 325 

that it shall he my aim to continue absolutely unbroken the policy of 
President ]\IcKinley for the peace and prosperity and honor of our 
beloved country." 

A higher tribute it was not possible to pay the illustrious dead ; a 
more exalted appreciation of his virtues as a man, and his ability as a 
statesman could not have been framed in speech, or manifested in 
action. But as if to confirm his declaration by further exhibition of 
his intentions to pursue the path marked out by McKinle}^, President 
Eoosevelt requested all the members of the Cabinet, and also the faith- 
ful secretary of the dead President, to remain in office to the end of 
their terms. 

Fear of a Panic Averted. — That Eoosevelt is a conservative man, 
when it is the part of wisdom to be so, was proved by his prompt seizure 
of this ripe occasion to declare what his policy would be. And that the 
people, the mighty rich, as well as the loyal masses, gave him their 
perfect confidence, was strikingly attested by the fact that a com- 
mercial shock was averted, and that the business interests of the coun- 
try continued unimpaired. In all other great national tragedies of 
vrhich history gives any account one marked feature has been loss of 
public confidence through fear of a change of policy ; stocks have here- 
tofore taken a great fall; the money market has become constricted; 
business enterprise has halted, a dreadful unrest has prevailed. But 
notwithstanding McKinley's administration had brought the country 
to a condition of unexampled prosperity, and that commercial expan- 
sion and speculative investment had reached a point never before 
known, when it might be supposed that capital would be most sensi- 
tive to such a national calamity, stocks actually advanced on the :Mon- 
day following the President's death, and business has shown no dis- 
turbance since. The sorrowing nation took on its burden of great loss, 
lamenting the death of a statesman whose name will ever shine with 
special brilliancy in the galaxy of the world's most illustrious, but 
with perfect faith in the capacity, no less than in the integrity, of his 



336 Memorial Volume op 

successor, all Americans hailed him with an abiding confidence and 
high expectation, firm in the conviction that the era of prosperity estab- 
lished by McKinley will be prolonged, and the progress of the nation 
be continued by the wise administration of Eoosevelt. 

The Domestic Life of Roosevelt. — President Eoosevelt has been 
twice married, his first wife, ]\Iiss Alice Lee, of Boston, dying in 
1884, three years after their marriage, leaving to him an infant daugh- 
ter, Alice, who is now eighteen years of age and the belle of the "White 
House. In 1886 President Roosevelt married, in London, Miss Edith 
Kermit Carrow, of Xew York, whom he had known from childhood, 
and who is a woman of decided intellectuality and great amiability. 
She was a society girl, the family being a prominent one, but never 
one of the frivolous kind most commonly to be met with in our large 
cities. On the contrary she had literary ambitions, and being well 
educated she entered the literary circle of New York, and has written 
three books of pronounced merit. By his present wife President 
Roosevelt is the father of five children, viz: Theodore, aged 13; 
Kermit, 11; Ethel, 9; Archibald, 6; Quentin, 2. 

Fireside Affection.— The home life of the President is an exem- 
plary one, in which respect there is marked similarity to that of the 
McKinley family, where the domestic ties were ever paramount. Mrs. 
Roosevelt will do honor to the high position to which she has been 
called, having the accomplishments and the graces of culture, benevo- 
lence, amiability, and an appreciation of high ideals, which make for 
better womanhood and intellectual advancement. She has traveled 
extensively, read the best authors, is tactful and a fine conversation- 
alist, though somewhat retiring in her manner. Above all else Mrs. 
Roosevelt is a devoted wife and mother, one who believes in and adores 
her distinguished husband, and who finds no place so congenial to 
her tastes, so perfectly happy as her own fireside. And it must be added 
President Roosevelt appreciates her noble qualities, and esteems her 
judgment as he does her beautiful character. This shown by an interest- 



American History, 327 

ing incident on June 22, 1900, when, during a caucus of the New York 
delegation, he refused positively to yield to the Piatt proposition that 
he be given the nomination for Vice-President until he could have a 
private talk with his wife. A carriage was sent for and he sought ]\Irs. 
Eoosevelt at their hotel. Firmly she counseled him against an accept- 
ance, and he deferred to her absolutely, but nothing he could, say, 
neither reason, nor declaration not to accept a nomination could stay 
the tide of convention decision, and receiving a unanimous nomination, 
his own voice being alone in opposition, acceptance became a necessity. 
President Eoosevelt and his wife are both members of the Beformed 
Dutch Church and carry the Christian virtues into their everyday 
life. 

Ladies of the White House. — ^hs. Eoosevelt is the thirty-first 
lady of the Wliite House, the full list and the order in which they 
appeared being as follows : 

Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, Dolly Madison, Elizabeth 
Monroe, Louise Adams, Eachel Jackson, Emily Donelson, Sarah 
York Jackson, Angelica Van Buren, Anna Harrison, Letitia Tyler, 
Mrs. Eobert Tyler, Letitia Semple, Sarah Polk, iMargaret Taylor, 
Abigail Fillmore, Jane Pierce, Harriet Lane, Mary Todd Lincoln, 
Eliza Johnson, Martha Patterson, Julia Dent Grant, Lucy Webb 
Hayes, Lucretia Garfield, Mary Arthur McElroy, Eose Cleveland, 
Frances Folsom Cleveland, Caroline Harrison, Mary Harrison McKee, 
Ida Saxton McKinley, Edith Kermit Eoosevelt. 



ROOSEVELT THE MAN AND THE EXECUTIVE. 

Had he been consulted, no question Eoosevelt would have chosen 
size and strength rather than riches. The latter being his portion, ho 
had the rare fortune to receive in addition a marvelously active mind 
and an ambition to make the very utmost of which his physical being 



338 Memorial Volume of 

was capable under systematic development. Small of stature, weak of 
body, unpromising in appearance, his was a handicap completely dis- 
couraging to one not endowed with wondrous mentality reinforced 
by strong vitality. Notwithstanding his marked physical deficiencies 
he strove mightily to be swiftest of foot, greatest in endurance, bravest 
of his class, and quickest in his studies, a mighty power, so to speak, 
in a small compass. This smart disposition and agile movement, for 
which he was remarkable in boyhood, increased with his growth, until 
in manhood Eoosevelt's energy and courage became so great that he 
was known among his associates as "the human Gatling gun," so rapid 
is he in all his acts, speech and decisions. 

Impulsiveness Prompted by Intuition. — It frequently happens 
that promptness of action, readiness of opinion, quickness of speech are 
characteristic of the inconsiderate, the unreliable and the unwise; but 
examples are not few where celerity of conclusion and action are evi- 
dences of a superior mind. Indeed, instances are many where almost 
instantaneous decision has not only averted calamity but has powerfully 
promoted the welfare of nations. Napoleon was noted for the swift- 
ness with which he comprehended questions and the impetuosity of his 
executions. And while the contrary trait distinguished many great 
rulers, the number is not few who achieved their reputations for wise 
statesmanship by the rapidity with which they seized and disposed of 
exigent questions, while it may be said, the best general is one who has 
a mind for intuitively judging, and a heart that .prompts to take quick 
action, by which advantage .6 often taken of the enemy. 

In some respects the character of Eoosevelt resembles that of 
Andrew Jackson, especially so in his leonine courage, and his set reso- 
lution to execute an undertaking once entered upon. And we cannot 
fail to be much impressed by the fact, so amply illustrated by the lives 
of rulers, that the sturdily honest, the most thoroughly impartial and 
humane, and the wisest for public good, have been those wielding 
mighty power who were distinguished for their personal courage and 



American History. 329 

their trust in the people, while tyrants and corrupt rulers have ever 
heen men wholly lacking in bravery, and who have shrunk with trem- 
bling cowardice when a fear of bodily harm threatened them. 

The Elements That Make Him Truly Great. — President Eoosevelt 
has proved his mental quite as well as his physical ability, not only by 
his pen, which clearly expounds his sound philosophy, and exhibits his 
power of originality and analysis, but by his acts as an executive, in 
the several important offices he has so ably filled. As police commis- 
sioner grappling with corruption in New York City, as Assistant Sec- 
retary of the Xavy at a time when that office required a man of the 
most conspicuous ability, for war had been declared, and as Governor 
of jSTew York, where he distinguished himself by branding fraud, and 
putting his foot upon the neck of bribery, and by driving out the 
money changers from the temple of state legislation. In all these 
places of public trust he was efficient;, and proved himself an uncom- 
promising foe to every species of dishonesty. Xor are there any dis- 
credit marks upon the record of his career as official or citizen ; he has 
been a statesman of integrity, and one of wisdom as well ; he is a cham- 
pion of political reform, an enemy to blind partisanship, a patriot at all 
times, and a fighter in the front ranks when his country is menaced 
by war. 

The greatness of McKinley, for whose untimely death America 
will never cease to lament, was in many things ; he was a wise ruler, a 
lofty minded statesman, a thorough American ; he was more than this : 
he was a good, a noble, an honest man, whose domestic virtues will 
never cease to shine with glorious lustre in the coronet of exemplary 
traits with which his countrymen have invested his memory for all 
time. But the virtue, as it is, of devotion to wife, the love so beautiful, 
so heart-touching, so elevating with benign influence, which was con- 
spicuous in the home life of McKinley, has its counterpart in the 
domesticity of Eoosevelt. In him we see the blended elements of 
soldier courage and the tender sentiment of perfect loyalty to the 



330 Memorial Volume of 

woman who ennobles his career with reciprocated affection. The world 
is bettered by such men, even when they walk in humble ways, and 
when such occupy high places in public trust they become exemplars 
for the people, and diffuse an influence that is infinite for the national 
good. Bigotry, sectionalism, partisanship, in the sense of party pas- 
sion, oppression, is impossible to a man of these lofty ideals and sincere 
purposes. 



ROOSEVELT AS A SOLDIER. 

The military title of "Colonel" belongs of right to Roosevelt, as 
that of "Major" belonged to McKinley, both having won their pro- 
motion by distinguished service on the battlefield. Roosevelt was too 
young to take part in the Civil War, and it is fortunate, too, for recon- 
ciliation between what were once estranged sections is more firmly per- 
fected by the fact that Southern and Northern blood flows in equal 
proportions in his veins; that he belongs, by virtue of birth, to South 
and North alike. 

It was the fortune of Roosevelt to be heir to wealth, but it was 
his greater fortune to be born without taint of the boast of privilege, 
or the vainglory that is the bane of riches. In him has ever been an 
ambition to serve his fellowmen, not as an oppressor, but as a pro- 
moter of the public good, socially and politically. Born to ease, he 
eschewed it for the life strenuous, the life helpful, the life exemplary. 

The badge of leadership is as often worn upon the brow of men 
as is the stamp of genius; it shows itself in the child, it is emphasized 
in manhood. Never was it more pronounced than in the career of 
Roosevelt, from boyhood to the Presidency, for, like the spirit of 
prophecy of old, it was manifested in his childhood. 

His Enlistment in the Army. — It was a comfortable, important, 
and promising office that he held under appointment of President 



American History. 331 

McKinley, next indeed to that of a Cabinet position, but its honors, 
emoluments, and his prospects for advancement he promptly resigned 
when the bugle blast sounded, summoning a volunteer host to do 
battle in the cause of human liberty. His mind operating with the flash 
of an impulse he quitted the high office of Assistant Secretary of the 
ISTav}', and tendered his services to his country in the war with Spain. 
A more conspicuous example of patriotic abnegation it is difficult 
to find in the annals of history. 

He Organizes a Regiment of Rough Riders. — With indomitable 
energy he set about the work of raising a regiment, and he made I 
selection from the bold spirits of the plains the cowboys, the rough 
riders whom he learned to know so well, their daring, their execution, 
their composure in places of peril, by association with them on the 
broad reaches of the wild West. A thousand fearless men flocked to his 
banner, not only coming from ranches of the Rocky Mountain region, 
in leather and sombrero, men of the lariat and the bull whip, but men 
also from ISTew York's exclusive society, young apprentices of war, 
out of the ranks of the militia, whose valor and patriotism was proved, 
on the test to be above the dilettanteism of the idle, the ennuied, the 
highly decorated and sensational rich. 

The Fierce Charge up San Juan Hill. — When his regiment was 
fully recruited he tendered its services to the government, which, being 
accepted, Dr. Leonard Wood, of the regular army, was made colonel, 
and Roosevelt was perfectly content to accept the lesser office of lieu- 
tenant-colonel. With all the persuasive influence it was possible for 
him to exercise he urged that his regiment be ordered to the front, 
and it was by this demand for service that the Rough Riders were 
sent to Santiago to bear the brunt of hardest fighting in the siege of 
that well-defended city. It was intended that the Rough Riders should 
be mounted, but there was no time allowed to buy and ship horses, 
so these fearless soldiers, with the most intrepid of commanders lead- 
ing, pushed ahead and made the famous charge up San Juan Hill, 



333 Memorial Volume of 

and at Las Giiasimas, with Roosevelt always in the advance. Ameri- 
cans have not forgotten, nor will history neglect to record, the heroic 
assault on the Spanish stronghold as conducted by Wood and Roose- 
velt. Chaparral, barbed wire, and a hail of shot and shell could not 
check the resistless sweep of the Rough Riders; many of these 
wondrously brave fellows fell before the galling, down-pouring volleys 
of the greatly advantaged enemy, but Roosevelt escaped, and with 
sword in air, waving and inciting, he led the phalanx until it drove 
the enemies from their intrenchments and won the day, with a hurrah 
the clamor and echo of which will never expire or cease to be a mighty 
stimulation to American soldiers. 

Promotion and Subsequent Service. — For superb gallantry in the 
fiercest battle of the war. Wood was made brigadier-general, and 
Roosevelt was promoted to be colonel. Besides this honorable mark 
bestowed by the President, Roosevelt was specially complimented not 
only for his heroism, but also for the excellent care and generous 
consideration he showed for his men, whom he hailed as comrades. 

His Devotion to His Men. — With the surrender of Santiago, and 
conclusion of the war, a great problem was presented in the necessity 
for a speedy removal of American troops in Cuba, among which yellow 
fever had appeared and death came to the brave fellows in more 
horrid form than that of battlefield. Unable to brook any appearance 
of inactivity, and suffering with his stricken fellows, Roosevelt joined 
in the preparation of a "round robin" by the officers demanding that 
all except immune regiments be conveyed without delay to some 
healthy place in the United States, pending disbandment of the army. 
This action precipitated a heated controversy with Secretary of War 
Alger, but red-tape army methods did not prevent the removal of 
Roosevelt's regiment to Montauk Point, New York, where he was 
indefatigable in his efforts to provide comforts greater than the govern- 
ment was able to promptly supply. 

The magnificent kindliness of Roosevelt, his splendid, untiring 



American History. 333 

devotion to his comrades in arms, made him the idol not only of his 
own troops, but of the army and of the people as well, and his popu- 
larity so worthily achieved has lost none of its earnestness since, nor is 
it likely that the glory of his deeds will lose any of its lustre in all 
the years that shall know the great Kepublic of the United States, 



i 



A HISTORY 



OF THE 



GREAT QUESTIONS AND MIGHTY 
ISSUES 



Which now confront the nation and press for wise consideration, 
patient investigation, and effective solution 



Such Problems as those involved in Maintenance of the Monroe 

Doctrine, Repression of the Trusts, Construction of an Isthmian 

Canal, Pacification of the Filipinos, Our Colonial Policies, 

Commercial Expansion, Reciprocity of Trade, Labor 

Organizations, Internal Improvements, 

Strikes and Lockouts, etc. 



AND A FORCIBLE, GRAPHIC PRESENTATION OF THE PRINCI- 
PLES, TEACHINGS, PROPAGANDISM, DEMANDS AND 
AWFUL TRAGEDIES OF ANARCHISM 



(335) 



ANARCHY 
AND OTHER MOMENTOUS PROBLEMS 



(%6) 



ANARCHY. 



Banner of the Red Terror. 

Social conditions have, since the institution of government, been 
a subject of continuous discussion ; nor may we ever hope to see a satis- 
factory determination of the questions in dispute. The world savage, 
and the world civilized has been in the control of mobocracy ; absence 
of authority, save that seized by hands having the temporary 
strength to wield it, conducted the French Eevolution, and led on to 
the horrifying spectacle of a deluge of human blood, to which inno- 
cence contributed as much as the guilty. The causes that precipitated 
this frightful carnival of murder may, and no doubt were, all they 
have been represented, but even so, it must be admitted by all serious- 
minded persons that the evils complained of so bitterly, righteously, 
might have been corrected by healthy public sentiment forcing execu- 
tion of laws, or by demonstrations which lacked the fearsome attendants 
of indiscriminate slaughter. History is not silent when we ask to be 
shown the effects of anarchy; for the suspension of government, the 
deposition of all delegated authority, and the rule of might has had 
many experiments, and in every instance the result has been robbery, 
rapine, ruthless murder, until the majority has begged of mercy to 
restore the rule of law. The savage is not so completely bred out of 
human nature, even in Europe or America, that we may trust wholly 
to the saving grace of what is called our higher intelligence. Crimei; 
everywhere exists, which at best can only be restricted by enforcement 
of punitive laws. If, therefore, crime taxes our courts despite the 
punishments visited, what must inevitably be the condition of society 
when all law is abrogated and the license of indiscriminate personal 
might prevails? Such a condition would in effect be an enforcement 
of the Malthusian doctrine for preventing the further increase of the 
22 (337) 



338 Memorial Volume of 

race. More than this, it would ultimate in the destruction of the race, 
or in return to the primal condition of family isolation. 

What is Anarchy? — Anarchy has been defined as a struggle to 
secure an abolition of all government, and an aljrogation of all law. 
The contention of those who call themselves anarchists, or nihilists, 
is that the laws bear unequally on rich and poor, and that discrimina- 
tion in the enforcement leads to wrongs, oppressions, greater than would 
follow from their total abolition. They maintain, also, that elevation 
of a man to the supreme dignity of ruler over his fellows makes him a 
tyrant, because his position is such that he cannot understand the needs 
of his subjects, and his demands are immeasurably increased by the 
exaggerated sense of his own overweening importance and sensuality. 

The Hegelian theory is that everything which is legalized inevit- 
ably creates that thing which is its opposite, a principle which Proud- 
hon thus formulated: "Every true thought is conceived in time 
once, and breaks up in two directions. As each of these directions 
is the negation of the other, and both can only disappear in a higher 
idea, it follows that the negation of law is itself the law of life and 
progress, and the principle of continuous movement." This was 
written as early as 1848, when, it may be said, no disciple of Hegel, 
or of the theory of anarchy, counseled violence; when belief in the 
doctrine was serious, but when those who maintained it were non-resist- 
ants, as Tolstoi is now. 

Schools of Anarchy. — It must not be believed that all confessed 
anarchists are advocates of violent means to overthrow the institution 
of government, or who believe in defying all human law. 

There are, indeed, several schools of anarchy, some of which 
contend for the principle by propagandism ; others, by co-operation 
with socialists and agrarians, acting in a politic capacity, although 
socialism is in fact the direct opposite of anarchy, for that school 
believes in common ownership and common eifort, while anarchists 
urge that all distinction, all law, all restraints, be destroyed and prop- 
erty become the prey of those strong enough to take it. 



Amertcax History, 339 

Contention of Socialists. — Socialists arc not antagonistic, in their 
principles, to government; on the contrary, the)'' are advocates of 
government ownership of public utilities, as well also of all property, 
in order tliat the fruits of industry of every kind may be enjoyed in 
common. Their theories have been put in execution in many instances 
— such as in France, 1848, which met with distinct failure; while in 
some cases — as in government ownership of railroads and telegraphs, 
notably in Germany — they have been signally successful. This suc- 
cess accounts for the wide diffusion of socialistic sentiment in that 
country. But, notwithstanding this success in the experiment of 
government ownership of railroads in Europe, and of the successful 
management of postal communication, we have to offset the good effect 
thus obtained by the failure that has attended municipal ownership, 
particularly in the United States, and may form an accurate judgment 
of what results might follow absorption by government of all personal 
and landed propert}', for what is everybody's business is nobody's busi- 
ness, and where individual activities are no longer stimulated by 
promise of personal gain, a nation of paupers is certain to develop. 

Even though anarchy and socialism have little in common beyond 
a desire for change in the order of things, adherents of the former 
do not despair of forming a coalition for the augmentation of influence 
against authority as now constituted. If either should obtain, through 
one (socialism) we might be expected to be pauperized because of our 
inaction, and through the other (anarchy) we would be harrowed 
without mercy by the despotism of our reverted savage natures. 

Differences Between Socialism and Anarchism. — The word 
"Socialist" may be defined as a term signifying a person who holds 
to the belief that society, the body politic, as it now exists is unjust 
through the influence of individual ambition, and that this injustice 
can be eliminated in no other way than through human intelligence 
applying constructively the principles of common effort, common 
production, and common ownership. In many respects "Socialism" 



340 Memorial Volume of 

and "Communism" are interchangeable terms, with the distinction 
that the former refers chiefly to society, essentially, and the latter 
to commercialism. 

A State-Socialist maintains that perfect society can exist only 
where the wisest and most impartial laws are honestly administered. 
This statement is axiomatic, a fact self-evident, hut its application 
by State-Socialists is in their demand for laws that give no special 
privileges; that bear equally upon all classes, but with a special view 
to helping labor and preventing poverty, since prosperity of the masses 
must rest upon contentment of producers. 

An Anarchist-Socialist, strange combination, holds to the doc- 
trine that the vital essential of society is absolute liberty, even license, 
which should be allowed the individual in controlling his own affairs, 
regardless of effects on others. 

A Free-Socialist is an Anarchist, in a general sense, but specially 
maintains that society, as it obtains, through the enforcement of 
law, is in opposition to the principle of voluntary co-operation, and 
hence in ^antagonism to individualism and human harmony. 

A Beautiful Picture. — Ideal Socialism is thus defined by Lloyd, 
a distinguished disciple and exponent: "A state of society in the 
inoffensive man is as free as Eobinson Crusoe, yet in a world of 
brothers if he will; in which crime is discouraged in spirit and 
restrained in fact; in which helplessness is supported, weakness 
defended, and loss made good, without degradation or condescension ; 
in which industry has complete opportunity and retains its full prod- 
uct, and only laziness gets nothing; in which the spirit of equal 
human liberty, and the love of it, is the one law, the guiding principle, 
the centre of growth, the supreme and uniting thought, the true faith 
and enthusiasm of all." 

A picture may be painted that flatters nature ; the softest colors 
of springtime, the warmest tints of summer, the golden glories of 
fall, or the ashen bleakness of winter are rarely so picturesque in 



AMERicAisr History. 341 

nature as they are on the canvas of the painter; so it is the idealist 
sees conditions through his sub-consciousness and is blind to things 
as they really are. Every one would be glad if society could attain 
to so perfect a state as the ideal Socialist dreams of, but there are 
reasons impregnable, established as they are by human nature itself, 
why it can never be so. The anarchist, being wholly unpoetic, a rank 
materialist who writes his autograph with the torch, and has no 
patience to hear air-castle philosophy, sees the faults of society 
through telescopic imagination, and being of an impetuous nature 
he works himself into a state of anger that prompts him to enter 
upon a crusade of annihilation. He is as much a vandal, in his 
nature, as were 'the legions of Aleric, having respect for neither 
society nor for art, and regards license to prey, and to slay, if it suits 
his humor better, as the most exalted privilege that man can enjoy. 
Government signifies law, and the elevation of individuals; he there- 
fore attacks the representatives of government, as he would extirpate 
the head of a snake as the quickest means of destroying' its body 
which may lie concealed in a hole. 

Why Anarchy Cannot Prevail. — There are reasons, unimpeach- 
able, why the principles of anarchy, as well also socialism, cannot 
be established. That the principle of both is contrary to natural 
laws it is not difficult to prove ; first, by the many examples of experi- 
ment, and second, by appeal to our ovm judgments. Time and again, 
in free America as well as in monarchical Europe, by governments 
and by voluntary communities, by religious associations and by secular 
colonies, has communal co-operation been sincerely attempted, and 
often under the most favorable conditions possible, and while a few have 
continued to exist for a considerable time, and some are even now 
still pursuing their purpose, not one has flourished, and their existence 
was from the second or third year of experiment a languishing one. 

But the example of fact is not more instructive than the illustra- 
tion of reason. If mankind could be divested of ambition, of pride, 



342 Memorial Volume of 

of selfishness, and if a way could be found for equalizing human 
intelligences, so that every one would be on a common plane, intellec- 
tually, morally and physically, then it might be possible to establish 
and to maintain a perfect state of society by individualism, acting in 
voluntary co-operation for the general good. 

A Popular Fallacy. — While communism is breasting the cur- 
rent of human nature, anarchy leaves the channel entirely and goes 
dashing through a crevasse, or spreads out in a disastrous overflow, 
so as to accomplish the largest amount of destruction. Great harm may 
be done, and has been done, by individual anarchists, for the life of 
the greatest potentate may be taken by the lowest specimen of mankind ; 
but though Louis XIV. declared, "I am the state," nothing can be 
more false than the theory that the heart of any government is in the 
hereditary or elective head. At best a king or a president is only the 
temporary representative of t|ie jjeople; his death, whether natural 
or by violence, cannot affect the laws. A tyrant is one who defies law, 
who oppresses his subjects without authority to do so. The violent 
death of such a ruler may lead to reform of abuses, by a change 
not only of ruler, but of the form of government; but there are few 
pure monarchies now, all Europe, save Eussia and Turkey, being 
governed by kings who are answerable to the people for their acts 
because of constitutional limitations. 

The TJselessness of Assassination. — It must be perfectly apparent, 
when the conditions are carefully considered, that assassination of 
rulers, especially if they be the heads of constitutional governments, 
must fail to bring about a reign of anarchy. It is human nature to 
aspire, and this aspiration is so boundless that to gain distinction men 
will submit themselves to any peril, any suffering, if by so doing they 
may gain the applause of the world. There are thousands of men in 
every nation who are so ambitious that joyfully would they give their 
lives if by such sacrifice they could be king for a week. Why, therefore, 
should anarchy hope to extinguish the breed of kingly aspirants.^ 



American History. 343 

Indeed, assassination is an act so abhorrent to human nature that it 
emphasizes the need of law, so that instead of terrorizing a nation into 
abrogating law, or in a deposition of authority, deeds so monstrous 
intensify determination of the people to enact more stringent laws, 
and to strengthen the arm of their ruler. To enter upon a discussion of 
all the principles of anarchy in a book not wholly devoted to the sub- 
ject would manifestedly be out of place, and especially so in a work 
like this ; it is sufficient to say, the doctrine of anarchy is one subversive 
of law, that it contravenes every established order society has made 
or existed under, that it leads inevitably to the "survival of the fittest/' 
or strongest. 

Torture Does Not Change Men's Convictions. — If it were possible 
to suppose a condition where assassination might be justified as a pun- 
ishment of tyranny, even in such case it is not a thing believable that 
the afflicted government may be benefited. For though an objectionable 
. ruler be removed and his evil example atoned, the bane is still present, 
for there can be no violation of law without resultant evils. This is 
due to the fact that all such violations corrupt the people, by suggesting 
a license to do other unlawful things, and public, no less than personal 
security, becomes dangerously threatened. It is this result, however, 
that anarchism strives for, but it is the striving by murderous means 
that defeats the ends aimed at. 

Force, violence, aye, every form of repressive measure and torture 
have ever failed to bring misgovernment to an end, to better in any 
wise the condition of society or to advance the cause of any movement. 
Let us look for a moment at two or three cases in point : During the 
reign of Bloody Mary did her fierce persecution of Protestants arrest 
the spread of that faith ? And when her successor, Elizabeth, applied the 
same tormenting measures to suppress the Catholics, did she not fail 
as signally? History abounds with such examples to prove that 
religious intolerance never arrested the spread of any faith. 

But men are as unyielding in their political opinions as they are 



344 Memorial Volume of 

in their religious convictions. This is proved by many examples, but 
a recent illustration we have in the efforts Eussia has made to stamp 
out nihilism, and the equally futile attempts made by nihilists to force 
the adoption of constitutional government. The most severe punish- 
ments inflicted by one has proved to be as useless for the purpose 
aimed at as have been the numerous assaults and assassinations of the 
other to accomplish their purpose. 

Assassination Is Purposeless Vengeance. — It is a remarkable 
thing, which it were well anarchists themselves should consider, that 
in every case of assassination of rulers during the past twenty years, 
the victims have not been tyrants, but were persons distinguished not 
more for the position held than for their generous, magnanimous 
humanitarianism — rulers whose ambition lay not in oppressing, but in 
elevating, improving, bettering and making happier in every way their 
subjects. And if we will observe closely it has been the rulers who 
have been less beneficently disposed that have escaped attempts upon 
their lives. 

Murder of Rulers. — Let us take a glance at the list of those 
stricken down by the assassin's blow: 

Alexander II., of Russia, killed by a bomb March 13, 1881. He 
was the most benevolent and charitable ruler that country ever had, 
if Ave except the present Emperor. It was he who in 1859-Gl manu- 
mitted 40,000,000 serfs, and thereby incurred the unquenchable hatred 
of the rich nobility. 

President James A. Garfield, thoroughly beloved, shot July 2, 
1881, not by an anarchist, but by a disappointed office-seeker. 

President Sadi Carnot, of France, stabbed to death June 24, 
1894. A man of rare amiability and generous impulses. 

The Shah of Persia, mortally stabbed May 26, 1896. Though an 
autocrat by training, he was the first ruler of that country to visit 
Europe and make himself familiar with the Christian civilization, 
and who thereafter strove to introduce reforms by which his subjects 
might be greatly benefited. 



American History. 345 

General Borda, President of Trnguay, shot August 26, 1897, was 
best known for his sympathy with the lower classes, whose condition 
he tried strenuously to improve 

Premier Canovas, of Spain, shot August 7, 1897, was the best 
loved man of that country, because of his kindnesses to the poor. 

President Barrios, of Guatemala, shot Februarj' 9, 1898, was an 
ambitious man, charged with usurpation, but he was very far from 
being a tyrant, and those who knew him best regard him as having 
been one of the most charitable and just of rulers. 

Empress Elizabeth, of Austria, fatally stabbed September 19, 
1898. If we except Victoria, she was the most popular woman of a 
century; one in whom human kindness was a chief trait, and whose 
delight it was to bestow favors upon the unfortunate. 

King Humbert, of Italy, shot July 2, 1900. It was under his 
rulership that the unification of Italy became complete and the 
nation a great power in Europe, while his subjects were given privi- 
leges never before granted them, 

The Very Capsheaf of Crime. — Lastly, so fresh in our minds 
that the tears have not yet left our eyes, nor the nation's wound 
ceased to bleed, was the murder of the universally beloved McKinley, 
a man who was as guileless as he was great, a President who, like 
the immortal Lincoln, loved and trusted the people, who mad'e the 
countrv' a very hive of industry and gave to it unexampled pros- 
perity. As a citizen and an executive his was a blameless life, against 
whom the hand of hate never raised itself, nor the lips of just com- 
plaint ever slandered. In his death human freedom received a 
mighty blow, and civilization stood still to take account of the awful 
loss as the world united in a wail of woe for its bereavement. Oh, 
anarch}-, what crimes are done in thy name ; what agony is inflicted by 
the deep damnation of thy causeless vengeance ! 

The Awe That a King Inspires. — In the list of assassinations 
above given, the crimes cannot all be imputed to anarchists, but the 



346 Memorial Volume of 

wonder is that, notwithstanding their creed of blood-letting, of anni- 
hilation, any one of these awful deeds shoukT have been committed 
by a representative of the doctrines of anarchy, for it would seem 
impossible that the instincts of humanity should ever be wholly eradi- 
cated by any teachings or belief from the heart of any man. 

Observers will not fail to note that a majority of those assassi- 
nated were presidents of republics, a form of government which pro- 
vides the largest liberty and makes every citizen a sovereign, full pan- 
oplied with the guarantees of life, liberty, pursuit of happiness and the 
right to worship according to the dictates of conscience. The ques- 
tion therefore arises. Why are presidents made the object of assault 
by anarchists more frequently than are kings, emperors, autocrats? 
There is a substantial reason, for which we have not far to search. 

It has been said that "man is a creature of his environment," 
which is no doubt true, but he is certainly influenced quite as much 
by inherited tendencies. Superstition can never be wholly elim- 
inated from human nature, and even those most inclined towards 
materialism are unconscious subjects of transmitted influences, of 
which supernaturalism is the hidden basis. Away back in the early 
centries of history the claim was set up and legalized that kings ruled 
by right of divine appointment. Such authority was derived from 
Biblical injunctions, by which men were designated to rule over the 
Jewish people. "The divinity that doth hedge a king" is an ingrafted 
principle, and may not be rooted out so long as kingdoms exist. 

Some Very Striking Examples. — It is not merely to gratify a 
ruler's vanity that he surrounds himself by so many theatrical splen- 
dors, nor is it merely his sense of superiority that causes him to show 
himself to the people only when the pomp of circumstance best 
enables him to produce an awesome impression. The prime reason 
is to be found in the fact that, as familiarity breeds contempt, so does 
exclusiveness beget exaggerated admiration. History shows that, as 
a rule, a potentate's influence is in inverse proportion to the frequency 



American History. 347 

with which he exhibits himself to his subjects. And we cannot fail 
to be persuaded to believe this statement by the familiar illustration 
afforded by the church government at Eome, in which the doctrine of 
papal infallibility has been the very keystone sustaining the arch of 
the Catholic temple ; as that faith grew less popular the influence of the 
Papacy diminished in the same degree. "Xo man appears great in 
the eyes of his valet,"' an observation confirmed by a thousand experi- 
ences, and the reverse of this fact may be as axiomatically asserted: 
"He who is least often seen is most sincerely reverenced/' just as a 
man frequently gets a reputation for wisdom through his silence. 

It is unquestionably true that people stand in awe of royalty — 
that there is still and always will be extant a degree of superstitious 
faith in the divinity of kings — and it is in this prevalent suggestion, 
if not belief, that monarchs have their greatest security. It is noticed 
also that while attempts on the lives of kings are comparatively fre- 
quent, few succeed. This failure we must attribute to the fear, not 
fully realized but certainly existing, which the would-be assassin feels 
that he is striking at one who wears the purple of authority by divine 
appointment; that the object of attack is a demi-god. Possessed of 
such a fear, even unconsciously, the criminal hesitates, his aim is 
uncertain, his passion of hate becomes mitigated by his dread of 
person and of a punishment not to be by human hands. 

The Dangers That Follow Familiarity. — It is the custom of Presi- 
dents, confirmed by declarations and precedents, to mingle freely with 
the masses, as a showing of his disposition to serve them, and that 
he counts himself as in no wise their social superior. Politics compel 
liim to exhibit this deference, for election depends largely upon the 
personal popularity of a candidate. In America, where the Constitu- 
tion and the law recognize no social distinctions, and where the 
Executive, raised to his position by the people's suffrage, becomes a 
public servant, and holds his office for a time limited by public favor, 
even the President draws about him little of the awesome respect that 



348 Memorial Volume op 

subjects have for their kings. The President mingles with the people, 
is accessible to any citizen, frequently becomes a public attraction, 
travels in ordinary trains, wears no glittering uniform, nor is he 
attended by an entourage of highly decorated officials, or a company 
of bedizened soldiers. 

There is a studied absence of pompousness, and besides this show 
of common citizenship the President is made a target for the sharpest 
criticisms of political detractors. He goes into office with his char- 
acter, however pure and lofty it may be in fact, smirched by the 
calumny of party spite, and to the end of his term he is the least 
respected and the most widely traduced person in the country. The 
cartoonist and the vituperative newsmonger vie in their efforts to vil- 
ify and hold him up to public contempt. Every policy, every speech, 
every recommendation the President may make meets with immediate 
censure and abusive criticism by party organs. Can we wonder, in the 
light of this understanding, why Presidents are assassinated? It 
matters not that our laws are more just, that liberty is largest, that 
thereby the widest fields of opportunity are opened and made free to 
any one who would use them, familiarity has destroyed respect, created 
jealous}-, promoted hate, exaggerated conditions, and armed the hand 
of social and of political enmity. 

How May We Protect Our Presidents? — The world has been 
trying for the six thousand years of recorded history to arrest the 
hand of murder. Every country since the dawn of civilization has 
made laws and adopted measures intended to protect persons gener- 
ally, and rulers especially, from assassination. The Bible is our proof 
that in the ancient days king-murder was common, and the red hand 
of crime has been striking at high places ever since. The severest 
punishments have been inflicted upon assassins, torture and death, 
the dungeon, deportation, isolation on torrid isles, but these have 
failed, just as inquisitorial torments of the ]\Iiddle Ages availed noth- 
ing in the effort to destroy men's religious convictions. Anarchy is the 



American History. 349 

disposition to murder, a reversion to savagery, a recurrence of the taint 
that afflicted the race in its primitive state, and it may therefore he 
likened to the fabled, hydra of a hundred heads, one of which being 
cut off another immediately grew from the wound. 

In these days of d}Tiamite, repeating arms, and other powerful 
means of destruction which ever\' one is free to use, protection of an 
individual from murderous assaults is impossible, as Garfield once 
declared, in reply to a warning that he should take precautions against 
assassination. But if protection of our national Executive is imprac- 
tical, bv either law or bodyguard, his security may be increased by 
promoting public respect for the office and the individual. How this 
may be done, without restricting free speech and curtailing the free- 
dom of the press, is a problem no one has yet been able to solve. That 
it will be attempted there can be no doubt, but with deep regret it must 
be predicted that prosecution or deportation of anarchists will fail to 
suppress their activity, as similar measures have failed in other 
countries; and yet, punishments severe should be the penalty for all 
incitements to violent acts against the government, or its representa- 
tives, for such provokement is distinctly treasonable. Crime cannot 
be prevented by law, but swift enforcement of laws already on the 
statutes deters from commission, while a laxity of justice promotes 
anarchy just as it increases criminals of all classes. 



350 Memorial Volume of 



OUR COLONIES. 



How Acquired, and Policy of Government. 

The territorial policy that long obtained in this country was 
founded upon the cry "America for Americans." This political slogan 
was first heard during what was known as the "Know Nothing Cam- 
paign," when there was manifested the greatest dislike of all foreign- 
ers. But "America for Americans" has since had a very much 
broader, humane and beneficent significance. It has not in many years 
implied any aversion for those who would make the United States their 
home, or for naturalized citizens who participate officially in the affairs 
of government. The meaning it now possesses is that no foreign power 
shall divide iVmerican territory; that our nation shall be supreme 
throughout every part of America. 

The internal development of the country to which we have applied 
ourselves so industriously and efficiently, has necessitated, upon several 
occasions, the acquisition of contiguous territory, sometimes by con- 
quest, but more frequently by peaceful means. The history of the 
growth of the United States is an extremely interesting one, and in 
view of the important questions growing out of our present colonial 
policy, it should be well learned by every American citizen. 

Story of Our Annexations. — After the adoption of the Federal 
Constitution (1787) the different States ceded to the Union all the 
territories to the west of them. Some of these territories nominally 
extended to the Pacific coast, but practically the Mississippi Eiver 
was the western boundary. Louisiana and Florida were then under 
Spanish rule, so that navigation of the Mississippi was restricted, to 
the great inconvenience of settlers west of the AUeghanies, for it had 
been ,the fixed policy of Spain to exclude foreign commerce from that 
stream. Wlien, in 1780-82, John Jay made overtures to treat with 



American History. 351 

Spain on the subject of making the Mississippi free to all internal 
commerce, the king of that country haughtily and peremptorily refused 
to consider any proposal to this end. Desultory effort was continued by 
our government until clamorous demands of western settlers caused 
renewal of the attempt, and in 1795 Thomas Pinckne}'', Envoy Extra- 
ordinary to Spain, succeeded in negotiating a treaty of friendship 
and boundaries, by which free navigation of the Mississippi was opened 
to this country, and the port of ISTew Orleans established. 

The Retrocession of Louisiana. — In 1800 Spain retroceded Louisi- 
ana to France, to which the territory had belonged until the peace of 
17G3, whereupon France abrogated the navigation treaty of 1795, and 
a great ferment immediately followed. It was at first seriously pro- 
posed to order out 50,000 militia and to capture Xew Orleans, but hos- 
tilities were averted by the sending of James Monroe to co-operate with 
Eobert E. Livingstone in an effort to purchase the territory of Louisi- 
ana from France. The negotiations were not immediately successful, 
and might have failed in the end but for the fact, fortunate for the 
United States^ that France became involved in a war with Great Brit- 
ain, for, believing he would be unable to retain the territory, and fear- 
ing that it might pass into the possession of England, Napoleon sold 
all of what was then the very extensive territory of Louisiana to the 
United States, for the sum of $15,000,000. This purchase treaty was 
signed April 30, 1803, by Monroe and Livingstone, on the part of the 
Union, and by Barbi-Mabois for France. By this purchase Jefferson, 
who was President at the time, acquired for the United States 1,171,- 
931 square miles of territory, which comprised what is now Alabama 
and Mississippi south of parallel thirty degrees, all of Louisiana, 
Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, west of the Missis- 
sippi, the two Dakotas, Montana, most of Kansas, and a large part of 
Colorado and Wyoming. 

Jefferson Condemned by Federalists. — The Federalists angrily, 
vehemently, and with vituperation attacked Jefferson for his recom- 



352 Memorial Volume of 

mendation of this act of purchase, declaring it to be utterly unconsti- 
tutional and subversive of the people's rights. Jefferson gave no 
heed to his traducers, but, being satisfied within himself of the vast 
public, national, benefit which must follow from this acquisition, pro- 
ceeded at once with his design to add Florida to the Union. The 
United States claimed West Florida by virtue of the purchase treaty, 
but Spain denied that in her retrocession of Louisiana Territory to 
France she had included any part of Florida. In 1810 there was a 
popular uprising of the people of West Florida, who declared their 
independence, whereupon Governor Claiborne, of New Orleans, was 
sent by the President to take possession of Mobile and that part of 
Florida which was in revolt, which prompt action restored the territory 
to peaceful conditions; but a little later (1818) the Seminole Indians 
declared war, and so harassed the Spaniards that, on February 22, 
1819, Spain ceded all Florida to the Union in consideration of the pay- 
ment of all claims filed against Spain by citizens of the States, which 
amounted to $5,000,000. 

The Acquisition of Texas and Other Territory. — Texas had been 
claimed by both France and Spain, but after the revolt of Mexico 
against Spain the territory came under Mexican rule. This condi- 
tion continued until 1836, when Texas declared her independence, and 
in the War which followed this declaration the Texans defeated the 
Mexican general Santa Anna. The republic then set up in Tex'as 
was recognized by the United States, France, England and Belgium, 
but Mexico refused to acknowledge the new republic or to concede its 
independence. Affairs on the border therefore remained unsettled 
and warlike, which prompted several leading men of the United 
States to advocate the annexation of Texas, but by others such a 
measure was violently opposed, upon the grounds of alleged unconsti- 
tutionality, and denial that Texas had achieved independence. In 
1844 Calhoun, Secretary of State under Tyler, concluded a treaty of 
annexation, but the Senate refused to ratify it, and the contest was 



American History. 353 

spirited until Febmary 27, 1845, when a Joint resolution passed the 
Senate, and was concurred in by the House on the following day, 
admitting Texas to the Union. Mexico immediately declared war, 
but after a brief campaign of invasion the United States compelled 
Mexico to yield in the dispute, but with rare generosity made a pay- 
ment to Mexico of $15,000,000, and also $3,200,000 in settlement of 
the claims of private citizens against the Mexican Government, by 
which acts of conquest and purchase there was added to the Union in 
184:8 what is now California, ISTew Mexico, Utah, Xevada and part of 
Arizona and Colorado, in all 545,783 square miles. In 1853, by the 
Gadsden treaty, the southern part of Arizona, comprising 45,535 
square miles, was purchased from Mexico for the sum of $10,000,000. 

The Acquisition of Alaska. — In the year 1867 Alaska, with its 
577,390 square miles, was purchased by the United States from 
Eussia, on the recommendation of Secretary of State Seward, for 
$7,200,000. Prior to this purchase a syndicate had been formed in 
New York to buy Alaska, with a view to controlling the trade in seal- 
skins, and negotiations to this end proceeded so far that the govern- 
ment felt called upon to take action and deny the right of a private 
corporation to make the purchase for the purposes indicated. It was 
this denial that led to the acquisition of Alaska by the United States. 

Our Pacific Colonies. — In 1898 a treaty of annexation was ratified 
by the Senate with Hawaii, 6,740 square miles, and by treaty with 
Spain, December 10, 1898, which provided among other things for 
the payment of $20,000,000 to Spain : there was ceded to the United 
States the Philippine group of Islands, 144,000 square miles; also 
Porto Eico, 33,668 square miles, and Guam, an island of the Ladrone 
group, about 100 square miles. At the same time Spain relinquished 
all her claims upon Cuba, whose independence the United States 
acknowledged. 

In 1889, by a tripartite agreement with Germany and England, 

the Samoan group of islands, in the South Pacific, was partitioned, 
23 



354 Memorial Volume of 

and the United States acquired the Island of Tutuila, 54 square 
miles, which is valuable chiefly for its magnificent harbor of 
Pago-Pago. 

Opposition of the Anti-Imperialists. — It has been shown how the 
Federalists defamed Jefferson for his action in consummating the 
Louisiana Purchase, and the bitter opposition of the Whigs to the 
annexation of Texas, in both cases contention being vigorously made 
on the allegation that such acquisitions are contrary to both the 
spirit and the terms of the Constitution. It will be remembered, too, 
that President Grant, during his first administration, urged by 
message and personal influence annexation of the Island of San 
Domingo (Hayti), but his design was defeated by the opposition which 
developed in the Senate against the acquisition of territory not con- 
tiguous to the Union, and also by the argument based upon the senti- 
ment that it is contrary to the spirit of the Union to extinguish the 
independence of a republic, Hayti being a republic. 

The Government of Our Island Possessions. — The McKinley 
administration was confronted by a grave question when we came, 
by force of circumstances, to be a great colonial power. The pre- 
cedents which were made when the United States annexed con- 
tiguous territory could not apply with force or consistency to the 
acquisition of islands far removed from the home government. The 
policy of protection, which had become a cardinal doctrine of the 
Eepublican party, obtruded itself too into the annexation question, 
and caused a confusion which no modern statesmanship was able to 
reconcile. The policy had heretofore obtained that acquisition meant 
absorption, and the immediate enjoyment of all trade privileges pos- 
sessed by the States. Territorial form of government carried with it 
no abridgment of trade privileges, so that our territories and Alaska 
enjoyed free trade intercourse with the United States. The annexa- 
tion of Porto Rico and the Philippines, however, raised a new question 
that controverted the old maxim, "the Constitution follows the flag.'* 



American History. 355 

Protected interests, especially the sugar and tobacco trusts, at 
once demanded that a discriminative tariff be laid upon productions of 
Porto Pico and the Philippines, basing their argument less upon the 
justice of such impositions than upon the effects wliich free trade 
would have upon home industries, especially tobacco and sugar. The 
President at first recommended free trade with Porto Rico as a meas- 
ure of right and good faith, but he was overborne by demands of the 
powerful trust barons, and accepted a compromise in order to avoid 
an inglorious defeat. The original tariff agreed upon for products 
from Porto Rico was twenty-five per cent of the rates fixed by the 
Dingley bill. The compromise measure was fifteen per cent of the 
Dingiey rates and the restitution, or "donation," as it was called, to 
Porto Rico of all tariff receipts from the island from the date of its 
acquisition, October 18, 1898. This concession, which permitted the 
evil principle to remain, gave no satisfaction, and as there appeared 
no other way of settling the question, it was carried directly to the 
Supreme Court, upon the contention that the Congress had no 
authority for levying a tariff or passing law^s that discriminate against 
trade between the States or any part of the established territory of the 
United States. 

A Question as to Hawaiian Eights. — The fact must not be over- 
looked, notwithstanding President McKinley in his annual message 
declared that the people of Hawaii "are entitled to the benefits and 
privileges of our Constitution," that the commissioners who negotiated 
the treaty of Paris (1898) asserted, and had adopted at the end of the 
ninth article the following clause, "The civil rights and political status 
of the native inhabitants of the territories (islands) hereby ceded to 
the United States shall be determined by Congress" : 

"The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated in 
the Union of the United States, and admitted as soon as possible, 
according to the principles of the Federal Constitution, to the enjoy- 
ment of all the rights, advantages and immunities of the citizens 



356 Memorial Volume of 

of the United States." Similar articles appear in the treaties with 
Spain (1819) for the purchase of Florida, and with Mexico (1848). 

It is upon the marked differences that distinguish the treaty of 
1898 from previous ones, ceding territory to the United States, that 
certain affected interests rely for a constitutional interpretation, plac- 
ing the right with Congress to levy a tariff on Porto Eico and the 
Philippine products. It can be seen at once that the question is 
one which if decided in favor of the protection policy will be fol- 
lowed by a clamor for constitutional amendment, while if the decision 
is opposed to that, a rift will be created in the principle of protection 
which will fiercely stimulate the agitation for free trade. 



American Histoet. 357 



THE INCOME TAX. 

It may confidently be predicted that in the next Presidential cam- 
paign one of the parties' platforms will contain a plank declaring for 
an income tax. There are two reasons upon which to base this 
prophec}', viz : because of labor agitation, and the claim that the tax 
burdens of government are laid unequally; that the masses, and the 
poor especiall}', are compelled to bear a proportion greater than does the 
capitalist, who can so easily hide his personal property from the asses- 
sor, and thus escape taxation. A second and probably more cogent 
reason may be found in the speedy promise of a general adoption of 
the policy of reciprocity. Our trade with foreign countries is extending 
with such amazing rapidity, and our manufacturing interests are 
growing so fast, far beyond the demands of home consumption, that 
outlets must be found for our fast increasing surplus products. Eeci- 
procity was recommended by McKinley, and the policy hasi been 
adopted by Eoosevelt, which may be taken as committing the Eepub- 
lican party to the theory. Eeciprocity is but another name for free 
trade; that is to say, it is the admission, free of duty, of specified 
articles from any country that extends the same privileges to us. If 
reciprocity is found to open new markets to our supplies, as it has done 
in the limited experimental trials, how natural a thing will be the 
approach of absolute free trade through treaties with all nations ! 

A Second Cogent Reason. — But even limited reciprocity must 
afiect the government revenues, and in the proportion that these fall 
off, through a diminution of the customs, will the necessity for an. 
increase of internal revenue taxes appear. The question will then 
present itself: Will the people insist upon the laying of an income 
tax, or submit to taxation on the thousand articles of everyday use? 
Example is afforded of an income tax collected in nearly every civil- 
ized country of the world, and the United States being the only excep- 



358 Memorial Volitme of 

tion, the temper of the people distinctly favors, or will very soon do 
so, the imposition of such a tax here. 

The Tax as Once Imposed in This Country. — Notwithstanding 
every nation of Europe has a graduated or fixed income tax law, and 
little complaint has attended its enforcement, the principle has 
always heretofore been repugnant to Americans. Prior to 1894 but 
one income tax law ever got into the national statutes, and then it was 
imposed as an exigent matter growing out of the government's neces- 
sities incident to the Civil War. On August 5, 1861, Congress 
authorized an annual tax of 3 per cent on all incomes of $800 and 
over. This act was modified by another passed in July, 1862, which 
fixed the tax at 5 per cent on all incomes under $5,000, with an exemp- 
tion of house rent and $600. Incomes between $5,000 and $10,000 
were taxed 7| per cent, and above $10,000 the rate was 10 per cent 
without exemption. Further taxes of 5 per cent were laid on the 
incomes of Americans living abroad, and of 1^ per cent on incomes 
derived from United States securities, this latter law expiring in 1865. 
In 1864 a special tax of 5 per cent was imposed on incomes above 
$600. In the latter part of the same year there was a readjustment 
by which the tax was made 5 per cent on incomes between $600 and 
$5,000, and 10 per cent above $10,000. In a test case the United 
States Supreme Court pronounced these taxes indirect and consti- 
tutional. 

The Wilson Income Tax. — In 1894 "an act to reduce taxation, 
to provide revenue for the government and for other purposes," com- 
monly called the "Wilson Bill," became a law. By its terms a tax 
was imposed on all incomes over $4,000, however derived. Again the 
constitutionality of the act was attacked, upon the plea that such a 
tax was class legislation, and taking this view of it, in 1895 the 
Supreme Court, by a majority of one only, declared it to be not only 
class legislation, but also direct taxation, and therefore should have 
been apportioned among the States. 



American History. 359 

A bare majority decision of the Supreme Court, especially when 
there was on record a full court decision of that same supreme judicial 
body pronouncing the income tax of 1864 constitutional and just, 
failed to satisfy public opinion, and for a considerable time thereafter 
the press teemed with discussion favoring and denouncing the adverse 
decision. 



360 Memorial Volume of 



THE MONROE DOCTRINE. 

After the overthrow of the empire of the first Napoleon 
(1812), France, Eussia, Prussia, and Austria formed an 
alliance for preserving the balance of power and suppress- 
ing revolutions which might occur in their respective dominions. 
The Spanish colonies in the Western Hemisphere having revolted 
the report spread, and was widely believed, that the allied 
powers contemplated a combined attempt to put down the insur- 
rection. Should such an effort succeed it was perceived that the 
nations participating would demand reward for their services and, 
if not prevented from doing so, would certainly take territory as 
their compensation, and thus Spanish America would be farmed 
out to the allied powers. In this ambitious lust for territorial acqui- 
sition England had no sympathy, but, believing her own posses- 
sions in America to be threatened by the alliance, George Canning, 
Secretary of State for the English colonies, made a proposal to the 
United States to join England in armed (if necessary) prevention of 
any interference which the allied powers might undertake with the 
affairs, revolutionary or otherwise, of the revolting colonies. After a 
consultation with his best advisers, viz: Jefferson, Madison, John 
Quincy Adams, and Calhoun, President Monroe agreed to the pro- 
posal made by Canning, and in his annual message to Congress, 1823, 
enunciated what has ever since been known as the "Monroe Doctrine." 
Keferring to the reported proposed intervention of European powers, 
the message contained this declaratory clause : "The United States will 
consider any attempt upon the part of foreign powers to extend their 
system to any portion of the Western Hemisphere as dangerous to the 
peace and safety of this government." And to make the purpose of 
this declaration definite and clear, the message stated: "The American 



American History. 361 

continents, by the free and independent condition which they have 
assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as sub- 
jects for future colonization by any European powers." 

How the Doctrine Has Been Maintained. — The boldness of this 
public utterance, made at a time when our nation was too weak to be 
able to maintain the doctrine should it be opposed by the allied powers, 
produced temporary alarm, but England lent such support as to 
strengthen and revive the faltering spirit of timid citizens, whereupon 
rather than risk war, with such small excuse for the waging, if in 
reality the Alliance ever contemplaed the interference reported, the 
proposal was abandoned. The Monroe Doctrine has stood, ever since 
its promulgation, as one of the bulwarks of our nation's stability, 
influence, and purpose. By the exclusion of foreign powers from 
territorial acquisition in America, we have fortified our own security 
against attack, for, being separated, by a wide ocean, from all the 
strong nations of Europe our country is practically secure against 
invasion, and remains free from complications which the proximity 
of territorial interests of European governments would always 
threaten. 

The Doctrine Enforced Against England. — As has just been 
shown, it was really at the instigation, so to speak, of England that 
the Monroe Doctrine was declared, and by her influence it was sup- 
ported, notwithstanding which the only times it has ever been threat- 
ened was by England, viz : in the matter of the Isthmus of Panama, 
and her territorial dispute with Venezuela. England has tried in vain 
to obtain acknowledgment of her right to build, or to assist in the 
building, of a Panama canal, which if secured would permit her to 
acquire property, landed and personal, in the Isthmus, and this acqui- 
sition, however small, would result in a nullification of the principle, 
as well as of the fact, of the Monroe Doctrine. If, also, England 
should be thus favored, upon whatever terms, other governments, in 
the Eastern Heinispliere, might with good reason, if not with full 



363 Memorial Volume of 

justification, demand the right to acquire territory, by purchase, 
or by arbitrary means, in America. 

England Compelled to Arbitrate Her Claim. — During President 
Cleveland's second administration an attempt was threatened by Eng- 
land to take possession of certain gold-bearing lands which Venezuela 
claimed were well within the boundary of her own territorial limits. 
The dispute had been one of long standing, but became acute after 
large gold discoveries in the contested district had been made, and 
England showed a disposition to forcibly occupy the auriferous terri- 
tory, when President Cleveland opposed such action by a reiteration 
of the Monroe Doctrine and compelled England to refer the matter 
of disputed boundary to a court of arbitration. A decision was not 
reached until after a long and searching contest, conducted by the 
ablest counsel in the world, in which ex-President Harrison was one 
of those who represented the claims of Venezuela, and when the award 
was made, it was in general terms favorable to Venezuela. England 
accepted it as final and the incident closed with another triumph for 
the Monroe Doctrine. 

The Doctrine Affected by Our Colonial Policy.— The United 
States has been, until the Spanish-American War, a government of 
internal development, except when the policy was departed from by 
the purchase of Alaska, 1867. Our expansion, it is true, has been 
great since we became a nation, but it has heretofore been by the 
acquisition of contiguous territory, to which action foreign powers 
could take no exception. When, however, the fortunes of war gave 
our country the Philippines, and circumstances made it advisable to 
raise the American flag over Hawaii, the situation as respects isolation, 
and hence the principles of the Monroe Doctrine, became materially 
changed. Certain foreign powers claim that our government has 
trenched upon their spheres of influence in entering upon a scheme 
of colonization, and that such a policy contravenes the principles 
of the Monroe Doctrine. This contention, while thus far only a tenta- 



American History. 3g3 

tive objection, may assume a well-defined state in the near future, and 
thus become a serious problem for administrative solution. The 
most immediate prospect seems to point to an attempt on the part 
of Germany to obtain a footing in South America, particularly in 
Brazil, where, because of a very large German immigration in recent 
years, her influence is already predominant. 



364 Memorial Volume of 



REaPROCITY— WHAT IT MEANS AND 
PROMISES. 

A history of reciprocity, whicli means reciprocal trade advantages 
between countries, is easily given, because the policy of mutual trade 
interchange between nations is of such recent promulgation as to be well 
within the remembrance of the middle-aged. It is true, a reciprocity 
agreement between Canada and the United States was made as early 
as 1854 (terminated 1866), and a similar one between the United 
States and Hawaii was concluded in 1875. But it was to James G. 
Blaine that the policy owes its real force and declaration, who while 
Secretary of State pronounced and strenuously advocated the theory 
of reciprocity, and urged its adoption in our trade relations, with the 
Governments of South and Central America especially. Although hi^ 
advocacy of the policy did not bear considerable immediate fruits, the 
forcible arguments which he advanced produced a decided effect by 
causing serious consideration of the subject among the people, and 
interest in it, as a possible cure for the evils of high protection, has 
not ceased to grow during the past ten years. 

Reciprocity Treaties Which Are Now in Effect. — The McKin- 
ley tariff of 1890 provided for the reimposition of taxes that had been 
removed on sugar, molasses, coffee, tea and hides in cases where it 
might be considered that countries producing these products levied 
a high rate of duty on manufactured articles made in the United 
States. With the inducement which this authority gave to certain 
countries, reciprocity treaties, limited in their scope, were concluded 
in 1891-93 with Brazil, Spain (for her West Indian colonics), San 
Domingo, Germany, Great Britain (for her West Indian posses- 
sions), Austria-Hungary, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala. The 
Wilson Bill of 1894, however, repealed the act of reciprocity in great 



A]\rERTCA-N- History. 365 

part, but the Dingley Act of 1897 restore.! all its provisions, and, in 
addition, wliile raising the tariff greatl}^ on a majority of imported 
articles, reduced the duties on wines, liquors, works of art, etc., and 
provided for future reductions on specified articles two years later — 
1890. Agreements were made in 1898 with France, and with Ger- 
many and Portugal in 1900, providing for reciprocal trade in certain 
products, and treaties of like import are now pending in the Senate 
between the United States and several countries. 

The Opposition of Radical Protectionists. — Radical protection- 
ists — those who favor a tariff high enough to prohibit the importation 
of competing products — have bitterly contested the reciprocity policy 
of President McKinlcy, and will no doubt show no less vigorous oppo- 
sition to its continuance by President Eoosevelt, who has declared his 
purpose to follow in the footsteps of his illustrious and lamented 
predecessor. We should understand that the concessions recom- 
mended by McKinley in his Buffalo Exposition speech the day before 
he was murdered, would not disturb the essential protective value of 
the high tariff ; for the reciprocity which he proposed was based wholly 
upon the principle that articles which we cannot produce successfully 
should be admitted under a low duty, or even free, when by such 
admittance we may obtain in foreign markets outlets for the things 
which we produce in greater quantities than is needed for home con- 
sumption. Such a policy is based on the broadest consideration of 
national welfare. It was this spirit which prompted the President, in 
his last public speech, to point out that the time had come when the 
one purpose nearest to his heart should henceforth be harmonized with 
new methods, and with those changes in the industrial situation which 
make it wise to adopt a carefully framed policy of reciprocal trade. 

Roosevelt Maintains the McKinley Policy. — Gratification must 
l)e felt, as has already been expressed, that President Roosevelt should 
be in perfect accord with the national plans and purposes originated 
and pursued by McKinley, whose statesmanship — brilliant, exemp- 



366 Memorial Volume of 

lary, wise, as it was — is a heritage of inextinguishable lustre and 
inestimable beneficence to the American people. 

At no other time in the life of the Republic have conditions so 
urgently demanded a modification of our tariff system. To President 
McKinley the credit must in generous part be given for the rapid 
expansion of our foreign trade ; that this large increase has been due in 
no small measure to the operation of our protective tariff laws no care- 
ful observer may deny, but though this fact is apparent, it is no less 
obvious, as our lamented President clearly pointed out, that the tre- 
mendous advance made, in the past three years particularly, in the 
productive energies and trade dissemination of the country calls 
imperatively for a material change in laws which, though at one time 
needful, now act as weights upon the feet of American commerce. 

American Goods Displacing Foreign. — To-day, to our honor, aye, 
glory, it can truthfully be asserted that American goods of field, and 
mill, and factory are crowding out the competition of every country on 
the globe. It is America now that furnishes locomotives, steel rails, 
electrical machinery, street cars, shoes, agricultural implements, coal, 
and a great variety of iron products, such as water-pipe, structural 
steel, etc., not only to China, Japan, India, Africa, but even to Eng- 
land herself, as well as to all the nations of Europe. "We can beat all 
competition by furnishing better articles at less prices than any other 
country. This being so, why should we not make treaties with other 
governments that will promote reciprocal trade? It is this policy 
looking to our national welfare that McKinley enunciated and to 
which Eoosevelt is committed by pledge and statesmanship. 



American History. 3G( 



THE TRUST QUESTION. 

One of the most serious as it is probably the most complex ques- 
tion with which our government must soon deal decisively, is that 
which concerns combinations of capital for the purpose of control- 
ling the output, and hence the market price of manufactured products. 
That it presents many aspects, ranging from beneficent design to 
the greatest evil tyranny can impose upon the helpless, must be con- 
fessed by all who dispassionately consider the matter. Co-operation 
of labor, organization of workmen, or any combination of persons for 
a specific purpose, to the exclusion of others, is essentially a "trust," 
as we have come to understand the significance of that word. Corners 
in grain, or in staples of everyday use and universal need, bring 
us at once face to face with the problem as it affects our immediate 
and personal interests, while trusts that manufacture machinery, that 
control the output of iron mills, or the means of transportation, thus 
raising the price, however great, to concerns that must buy for their 
own use, or in turn to supply to smaller companies — such aggregations 
of capital do not so directly appeal to our sense of injustice. Yet it is 
not in degree that the wrong lies, but in principle, and the harmfulness 
in the case where our personal interest is touched is no greater in 
fact than that which is committed in a general way, for in the end, 
if there be oppression perpetrated upon a large corporation, whether 
it be one that builds railroads, steamships, or bridges, the injustice is 
certain to descend until it reaches the small mechanic and the poorest 
family. It must be seen, therefore, that a bread trust is really no 
worse in principle, or in fact, than the steel trust, for though the 
effect is immediately felt by the masses from operation of the former, 
the ultimate result of the latter bears equally heavy upon all classes. 

How Shall We Repress tire Trust. — The evils which follow from 
combinations of capital being numerous and clearly discernible, the 



368 Memorial Volume of 

mighty question confronts lis, "How may tliey be prevented?" Can 
laws be enacted which will effectually prevent the organization of trusts 
without at the same time contravening the constitutional guarantee 
of "liberty, life and the pursuit of happiness?" These words are 
susceptible of varied construction, as has been proved many times 
by Supreme Court decisions. Only a short while ago a law was passed 
by the Illinois Legislature which was designed to prohibit the establish- 
ment and conducting of depai'tment stores in that State. The law 
was attacked as being in violation of the constitutional guarantee and 
the contention was sustained by the court. 

A Difficulty Beyond Easy Amendment. — A supreme dithculty is 
met when attempt is made to frame a prohibitory law applicable to 
specified industries, for this then becomes class legislation, which is 
forbidden by the Constitution, and it is for this reason that anti-trust 
laws already enacted have remained unenforced. A labor organiza- 
tion that is formed to control the price of labor, which enforces its 
demands by strikes or menaces, is a trust quite as much as is a com- 
bination of capital formed to control the price of products. So also 
Avould be an agreement made by a number of farmers to hold their 
grain in order to force a higher price for what they have to sell. "We 
recognize the perfect right of labor to organize, and to use all means, 
short of lawlessness, to keep wages at the highest, and the farmer or 
any combination of farmers may justly refuse to sell their produce 
until it pleases them to do so, for these are inalienable privileges ; but 
admitting this right, shall the same privilege be denied to any other 
combination of persons in their capacities as manufacturers? The 
difficulty, as it must be seen, lies in our lack of ability to frame a law 
that will make a distinction without infringing personal rights. It 
is not sufficient to say that the greater wrong to the community is com- 
mitted by aggregations of capital ; this must be admitted ; but though 
we fully appreciate the fact, our dilemma is not in the least lessened 
thereby, since the law cannot discriminate, and must be no respecter 
of persons. 



American History. 369 

In our very complex civilization, and especially in the pursuit of 
wealth, so ruinous to our moral well-being, complications are found 
which are not to be unravelled by the enactment of laws. ISTot a few 
things are deplorable which are also unremediablc, and the operation 
of trusts seems to be one of these. The question, in many respects, is 
similar to that presented by the liquor problem. Everybody admits the 
evils of intemperance, but no one has yet been able to devise a means 
for suppressing traffic in intoxicants, and the indications are that, for 
reasons perfectly patent, viz : personal profits, trusts will continue 
regardless of restrictive or prohibitory laws. 



24 



370 Memorial Volume of 



THE PROPOSED ISTHMIAN CANAL. 

One of the most important commercial questions now under 
consideration by the United States Government is that which concerns 
the construction of a ship canal through the narrow neck of Central 
America. Two routes have been proposed, and a history of the efforts 
to perform this gigantic work of engineering, the completion of 
which will be followed by incalculable benefits to commerce and 
governments, may be thus told: The attempt to build such a canal 
was first undertaken by the Panama Canal Company, which was organ- 
ized by Count de Lesseps, March 3, 1880, who obtained a concession 
from the Columbian government under an agreement to complete 
and open the canal for commerce by March 3, 1893. The grand total 
of shares of authorized issue had a face value of $500,000,000. Most 
of these were subscribed, but after $156,000,000 had been expended 
the company became bankrupt in 1889, and great scandal followed, 
which led to the trial of Count de Lesseps upon charges of fraud, 
preferred in France, and he was convicted and sentenced to serve a 
prison term. Thus ended in disgrace the first effort to cut a water- 
way by what was called the Panama route. By the original survey, 
and on which the work of cutting was conducted, the total length of 
the canal was to be forty-six and one-half miles, and it is estimated 
that nearly one-third of the work was complete when collapse of 
the company occurred and its affairs were placed in the hands of a 
receiver. 

In 1894 a new company was formed, which obtained a renewal 
of the Columbian concession, which requires completion of the canal 
by the year 1910, but confidence was so thoroughly destroyed by the 



American History. 371 

scandal and failure of the De Lesseps company that funds have not 
been fortlicoming with which to continue the work. 

The Nicaragua Canal. — Many distinguished engineers have main- 
tained that the route selected by the Panama Canal Company is an 
impracticable one because of the excessive cost of construction, but 
tlic general recognition of the value of such a waterway has kept 
tlie subject of building continually before the public for several 
years, and effort has not been wanting to perfect the .undertaking. 
Captain James B. Eads, the noted engineer, proposed the construction 
of a ship railway across the Isthmus, and had almost succeeded in 
organizing a company with sufficient capital for the work when death 
seized him in the midst of his labors and no further effort has since 
been made to build such a railway. 

In 1889, the year of the failure of the French company, the Mari- 
time Canal Company of Nicaragua, with a capital of $100,000,000, was 
incorporated under a charter granted by the United States Congress, 
a concession having been previously obtained from the Government of 
Mcaragua for constructing and operating an interoceanic ship canal. 
Excavation was begun by this company October 8, 1891, at Greytown, 
on the Pacific Coast, and in 1892 one mile of the one hundred and 
sixt3'-nine and one-half miles of the total route was opened. This route 
is now very generally believed to be the most practical and least 
expensive to construct, because of the adequate high water level supply 
furnished by lakes Nicaragua and Managua, which being on the sur- 
veyed route are to be made a part of the canal, thus reducing the dis- 
tance of actual cutting to be done to less than fifty miles. 

Progress of the Maritime Canal Company. — The amount of 
money expended in the work and plant of the Maritime Canal Com- 
pany was $G00,000 when the first mile was finished, but it was then 
seen that the cost of completing would exceed the original estimates 
and government aid was accordingly solicited. This application in 
1894 brought forth a bill unanimously reported by the Senate For- 



372 Memorial Volume oe 

eign Committee recommending a governmental guarantee of $100,- 
000,000, but opposition in the Senate caused its withdrawal. Interest 
in the enterprise continued, however, and in 1895, 1897, and again in 
1899 Congress provided for the appointment of commissions to 
investigate and report upon both the Nicaragua and the Panama 
routes. In pursuance of these instructions the Commission of 1899 
made a preliminary report in 1900 recommending the Nicaragua 
route and estimating the total cost of the work at $200,540,000. The 
commission unfortunately was not unanimous in its recommendations, 
and a distinguished engineer, who has made a thorough investigation 
of both routes, has since reported that a canal by the Panama route, 
using the cutting that has already been done, may be completed for 
$100,000,000. 

The question of adopting a route and raising the money necessary 
to construct a canal across the isthmus, is not the most serious one 
connected with the subject, for the contention has been made by Eng- 
land that by the provisions of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty she is entitled" 
to share in a joint protectorate over the canal, and as such she opposes 
fortification of the water-way. A history of how the Clayton-Bulwer 
treaty came to be made may be thus briefly given. 

How the Proposition of a Canal Originated. — The discovery of 
gold in California in 1848 was followed by a great rush of travel to 
the new fields, which at first was almost entirely by way of the Isthmus 
of Panama. It was this mighty influx of gold-seekers, and the wake of 
commercial trade that swept across the narrow neck, that prompted the 
idea of an isthmian ship canal. In pursuance of this purpose a treaty 
was entered into with the Government of i^icaragua in 1849, whereby 
the United States obtained permission to construct a canal across the 
isthmus by way of Lake Nicaragua ; but one end of this proposed route 
was at Greytown, which was occupied by British settlers, besides. Great 
Britain claimed a protectorate over the Mosquito Coast Indians who 
claimed the territory of that neighborhood. Mr. Clayton, Secretary 



American History. 373 

of State at the time, asked Great Britain to withdraw her claims to 
the coast so as to permit the canal to be built at once under joint con- 
trol of the United States and Nicaragua. This request Great Britain 
promptly declined to grant, but agreed to enter into a treaty with the 
United States for a joint protectorate over the canal. Being unable to 
obtain any concessions from Great Britain, Mr. Clayton negotiated a 
treaty with that country through Sir H. L. Bulwer, British Minister 
at Washington, April 19, 1850, which stipulated that neither nation 
should obtain exclusive control over the canal when built, nor erect 
fortifications commanding the same, nor exercise authority over any 
part of Central America. 

The Hay-Pauncefote Treaty. — The Clayton-Bulwer treaty never 
gave satisfaction, and contention is made that, having been repeat- 
edly violated by Great Britain, the United States has long since ceased 
to be bound by any of its provisions. In February, 1900, Secretary 
of State Hay negotiated another treaty with Great Britain, through 
Lord Pauncefote, which provided for the building of a Nicaragua 
Canal by the United States, but stipulated expressly that the canal 
should be free, and open in time of war, to vessels of commerce and of 
war, of all nations, and that no fortifications should be erected to com- 
mand or defend the canal. 

When this treaty came before the Senate on the question of ratifi- 
cation, the provision renouncing all right to fortify was fiercely debated, 
and developed so much opposition that the treaty was amended by 
striking out the objectionable clause and inserting in its stead one 
which gives to the United States the right to defend the canal by means 
of the nation's forces, which reads as follows : "7. N"o fortifications shall 
be erected commanding the canal or the waters adjacent. The United 
States, however, shall be at liberty to maintain such military police 
along the canal as may be necessary to protect it against lawlessness 
and disorder." With this amendment and others less material the 
treaty was ratified by the Senate December 30, 1900, but required that 



374 Memorial Yoltjme, 

mutual ratification of all its terms should* be made by the two contract- 
ing governments within six months from that date. Great Britain 
objected to the modification, and as that government refused to sign 
within the time named, the question originally in dispute still remains 
to be settled. To this serious issue the new administration, and the 
new Congress particularly, must now address itself. 



Discussions by Great Leaders 



OF THE WEIGHTY QUESTIONS AND HARD PROBLEMS 

WHICH ARE PRESSING UPON THE NATION 

FOR A RIGHT SOLUTION 



TO READ THESE EXPRESSIONS 
TO CONSIDER WELL THE SUGGESTIONS 

And to strive Dv every patriotic means ro help to a wise 

determination of the issues, without regard to partv 

purpose or affiliation, is trie inoperative duty 

of everv American that loves 

Ns country 



ror the attainment of these lofty aims for national good let 

all parties De consolidated, since it is Dv such 

joint action that individual Denefit Is 

most surely gained 



(»75) 



GREAT ISSUES 
TREATED BY GREAT STATESMEN 



(376) 



THE NATIONAL EMERGENCY. 



BY PRESIDENT M KINLEY. 



A year before his assassination President McKinley, with that 
rare prophetic vision which distinguished him scarcely less than his 
wise statesmanship and lofty patriotism, gave utterance to the follow- 
ins; words ; words which showed his unlimited confidence and affection 
for his country, his people and our institutions, as well also his faith 
in the destiny of the nation, and the means he designed should accom- 
plish the most beneficent purposes of our government : 

We have had our blessings and our burdens and still have both. 
We will soon have legislative assurance of the continuance of the gold 
standard with which we measure our exchanges, and we have the open 
door in the Far East through which to market our products. 

We are neither in alliance, nor antagonism, nor entanglement with 
any foreign power, but on terms of amity and cordiality with all. 
We buy from all of them and sell to all of them, and our sales exceeded 
our purchases in the past two years by over $1,000,000,000. 

Markets have been increased and mortgages have been reduced. 
Interest has fallen and wages have advanced. The public debt is 
decreasing. The country is well to do; its people for the most part 
are happy and contented. They have good times and are on good 
terms with the nations of the world. 

His Optimism Based on Facts. — There are, unfortunately, those 
among us, few in number I am sure, who seem to thrive best under bad 
times, and who, when good times overtake them in the United States, 
feel constrained to put us on bad terms with the rest of mankind. 
With them I have no sympathy. I would rather give expression to 

(377) 



378 Memorial Volume of 

what I believe to be the nobler and almost universal sentiment of my 
countrymen in the wish not only for our peace, but for the peace and 
prosperity of all the nations and peoples of the earth. 

After thirty-three years of imhroken peace came an unavoidable 
war. Happily the conclusion was quickly reached without a suspicion 
of unworthy motive, or practice, or purpose, on our part, and with fade- 
less honor to our arms. I cannot forget the quick response of the 
people to the country's need and the 250,000 men who freely offered 
their lives to their country's service. It was an impressive spectacle 
of national strength. It demonstrated our mighty reserve power and 
taught us that large standing armies are unnecessary when every 
citizen is a "minute man," ready to join the ranks for national 
defence. 

Out of these recent events have come to the United States great 
trials and responsibilities. As it was the nation's war, so are its 
results the nation's problem. Its solution rests upon us all. It is 
too serious to stifle. It is too earnest for repose. No phrase or catch- 
word can cancel the sacred obligation it involves. No use of epithet; 
no aspersion of motives by those who differ with us will contribute to 
that sober judgment so essential to right conclusions. 

No political outcry can abrogate our treaty of peace with Spain 
or absolve us from its solemn engagements. It is the people's ques- 
tion, and will be until its determination is written out in their enlight- 
ened verdict. We must choose betw^een manly doing and base deser- 
tion. It will never be the latter. We must be soberly settled in justice 
and good conscience, and it will be. Eighteousness, which exalteth a 
nation, must control in its solution. 

The Nation Equal to Any Emergency. — No great emergency has 
arisen in this nation's history and progress which has not been met by 
the sovereign people wdth high capacity, wdth ample strength and with 
unflinching fidelity to every honorable obligation. Partisanship can 
hold few of us against solemn public duty. We have seen this so 



'American" History. 379 

often demonstrated in the past as to mark unerringly what it will be 
in the future. 

The national sentiment and the national conscience were never 
stronger or higher than now. There has been a reunion of the people 
around the holy altar consecrated to country newly sanctified by com- 
mon sacrifices. The followers of Grant and Lee have fought under 
the same flag and fallen for the same faith. Party lines have loos- 
ened and the ties of union have been rooted in the hearts of the 
American people. 

Political passion has altogether subsided, and patriotism glows 
with inextinguishable fervor in every home in the land. The flag has 
been sustained on distant seas and islands by the men of all parties 
and section, and creeds, and races, and nationalities, and its stars are 
only those of radiant hope to the remote peoples over whom it floats. 

There can be no imperialism. Those who fear it are against it. 
Those who have faith in the Eepublic are against it. So that there is 
universal abhorrence for it and unanimous opposition to it. 

Our only difference is that those who do not agree with us have 
no confidence in the virtue, or capacit}^, or high purpose, or good faith 
of this free people as a civilizing agency; while we believe that the 
century of free government which the American people have enjoyed 
has not rendered them faithless and irresolute, we believe also has fitted 
them for the great task of lifting up and' assisting to better the condi- 
tions of those distant peoples who have, through the issue of battle, 
become our wards. 

Strive for the Noblest Ends. — Let us fear not. There is no 
occasion for faint hearts, no excuse for regrets. Xations do not grow 
in strength, and the cause of liberty and law is not advanced by the 
doing of easy things. The harder the task the greater will be the 
result, the benefit and the honor. To doubt our power to accomplish 
it is to lose faith in the eoundness and strength of our popular insti- 
tutions. 



380 Memoeial VoLCiiE of 

The liberators will never become the oppressors. A self-gov- 
erned people will never permit despotism in any government which 
they foster and defend. 

We have the new care and cannot shift it. And. breaking up 
the camp of ease and isolation, let us bravely, and hopefully, and sob- 
erly continue the march of faithful service and falter not until the work 
is done. It is not possible that 75,000,000 of American freemen are 
unable to establish liberty, and justice, and good government in our 
new possessions. The burden is our opportunity. The opportunity 
is greater than the burden. May God give us strength to bear the one 
and wisdom to embrace the other and to carry to our distant acquisi- 
tions the guarantees of life. Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 



American History. 381 



THE OPEN DOOR TO TRADE IN CHINA. 



BY HON. JOHN HAY, 
Secretary of State. 



By treaty stipulations the United States enjoys in Chinese terri- 
tory and in the ports of the empire four distinct rights: (1) Exter- 
ritoriality — that is, American subjects can only be sued and tried in 
their own consular courts; (2) In certain ports and settlements they 
have a right to own property, where realty passes under consular 
jurisdiction; (3) their trade pays duty by a treaty which can only be 
altered with the consent of the United States, and these duties are 
collectible by a Chinese customs service in which Americans are 
represented by courtesy of the signatory powers; (4) the United 
States enjoys in China "most favored nation rights" in regard to 
tonnage, harbor and other dues. 

The last three of these rights were placed in imminent jeopardy 
by the scramble of European powers for fragments of the Chinese 
Empire, once the prophesied disintegration should set in. The diplo- 
matic point was to preserve them to the United States, no matter 
what leading nation or commercial rival might, in the partition or 
spoliation of China, step into authority, or wish to abrogate them. In 
such an event, the three rights selected are deemed sufficient to pro- 
tect our vested rights in treaty settlements, of which that at Shanghai 
is the largest and best defined ; they insure a low tariff on American 
imports to China whether of American origin or shipped under our 
flag, and they guard against discrimination either in transportation 
rates by road or rail, or in dues and taxes on transport. 

The categorical acceptance of these rights insures the freedom of 
American trade in China for all time to come over the entire area of 



383 Mhmorial Volume of 

what is now the Chinese Empire. Great Britain was first in its 
response and most explicit in its declaration. It accepts the prin- 
ciple proposed by the United States for all the leased territory it now 
holds at Wei-Hai-Wei, and as to all territory to come. Germany 
was the last to respond, and the text of its answer, so far as pub- 
lished, guarantees "absolute equality of treatment of all nations with 
regard to trade, navigation and commerce" "so long as it is not found 
in the future to depart from this principle on account of considera- 
tion of reciprocity by divergence from it by other governments." 

The guarantee of equality is not precisely the same pledge as a 
maintenance of a treaty tariff, but as Germany is of course included 
in the powers which in the final dispatch are said to have "accepted 
the declaration suggested by the United States concerning foreign trade 
in China," it is clear that Germany with the rest has accepted the three 
points of protection for treaty rights, the treaty tariff and uniform 
rates for the subjects of all nations over China. This "declaration" 
will constitute the common datum from which all future negotiations 
in China will start. It creates for China, its wide territory, its 
great population and its growing trade, a common agreement among 
civilized nations which must control all their future actions. 

The treaties of Vienna, Paris and Berlin were no more important 
in determining the mutual rights and relations of European states, or 
the Berlin convention for Africa. This "declaration" brings to a 
common basis a great body of treaties extending over half a century, 
defines action and limits interference with foreign commercial rights 
in all future acquisitions by any signatory powers, and creates a new 
"doctrine" for China by establishing the right of the Imperial Gov- 
ernment to collect duties, requiring its assent to any change in the 
present tariff, and guaranteeing its leases of treaty "settlements." 

Firmness of Our Demands. — This great service has been done by 
the United States for the trade and peace of the world, by the firm 
but amicable demand that recognized treaty rights should be accepted 



American History. 383 

as constituting, so to speak, a servitude or easement upon all Chinese 
territory. Once accepted by all nations, this declaration will, as 
past precedents show, be enforced by all nations. Important to each 
European nation, this concession is of paramount value to the United 
States, whose Pacific coast line is the greatest on that ocean, whose 
posts encircle and cross it, and whose trade is destined to be greater 
than that of any other nation. During the twentieth century this new 
"doctrine" established for China is destined to be as important as the 
Monroe Doctrine has been for the Americans in the past century. It 
protects the present, it safeguards the future and it establishes the 
United States in an impregnable position, antagonizing no nation, 
entangled with none and demanding for all and of all the equal rights 
guaranteed by past treaties and accepted by this new "declaration." 
Each of the powers interested — Great Britain, France, Germany, 
Russia, Italy and Spain — gave a formal pledge in writing as follows: 

1. That it will in no wise interfere with any treaty port or 
any vested interest within any so-called "sphere of interest" or leased 
territory it may have in China. 

2. That the Chinese treaty tariff of the time being shall apply 
to all merchandise landed or shipped to all such ports as are within 
such "spheres of influence" (unless they be "free ports") no matter 
to what nationality it may belong, and that duties so leviable shall be 
collected by the Chinese Government. 

3. That it will levy no higher harbor dues on vessels of another 
nationality frequenting any port in such "sphere" than shall be 
levied on vessels of its own nationality, and no higher railroad charges 
over lines built, controlled or operated within its "sphere," or mer- 
chandise belonging to citizens or subjects of other nationalities, trans- 
ported through such "sphere," than shall be levied on similar merchan- 
dise belonging to its own nationality transported over equal distances. 

Gains Made by Our Treaties. — These pledges were given in each 
case with the understanding that they would stand if the other powers 



384 Memorial Volume of 

made similar pledges, which they all did. Then each power was 
informed of the fact that the others had acceded. When that was 
accomplished the matter was ended. Great Britain was the first power 
approached and Japan the last. All of them showed the utmost cor- 
diality toward the United States, and the shape in which the matter 
now stands, while not literally in the form of a treaty, practically has 
the same effect. There is no prohahility of any power withdrawing 
from that pledge as long as the United States has the support of any 
other great nation in holding the others to the pledges given. There 
will never be any question about Great Britain and Japan standing by 
the United States in this matter, and therefore this great diplomatic 
achievement, one of the most important in the history of the United 
States, is secure to our people. 



American History. 385 



TRUSTS AND MONOPOLIES. 



BY HON. WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN, OF NEBRASKA. 



The trust principle is not a new principle, but the trust prin- 
ciple is manifesting itself in so man}' ways, and the trusts have grown 
so rapidly, that people now feel alarmed about trusts who did not feel 
alarmed three years ago. The trust question has grown in importance 
because within two years more trusts have been organized, when we 
come to consider the capitalization and the magnitude of the interests 
involved, than were organized in all the previous history of the 
country, and the people now come face to face with this question : Is 
the trust a blessing or a curse? If a curse, what remedy can be 
applied to the curse ? 

I want to start with the declaration that a monopoly in private 
hands is indefensible from any standpoint, and intolerable. I make 
no exceptions to the n^le. I do not divide monopolies into good 
monopolies and l)ad monopolies. There is no good monopoly in pri- 
vate hands. There can be no good monopoly in private hands until 
the Almighty sends us angels to preside over the monopoly. There may 
be a despot who is better than another despot, but there is no good 
despotism. One trust may be less harmful than another. One trust 
magnate may be more benevolent than another, but there is no good 
monopoly in private hands, and I do not believe it is safe for society 
to permit any man or group of men to monopolize any article of mer- 
chandise or any branch of industry. 

What is the defence made of the monopoly? The defence of the 

monopoly is always placed on the ground that if you allow a few 

people to control the market and fix the price they will be good to the 

people who purchase of them. The entire defence of the trusts rests 

25 



386 Memorial Volume of 

upon a money argument. Tf the trust will sell to a man an article 
for a dollar less than the article will cost under other conditions, then 
in the opinion of some that proves a trust to be a good thing. In the 
first place I deu}' that under a monopoly the price will be reduced. In 
the second place, if under a monopoly the price is reduced, the objec- 
tions to a monopoly from other standpoints far outweigh any financial 
advantage that the triist may bring. But I protest in the beginning 
against settling every question upon the dollar argument. I protest 
against the attempt to drag every question down to the low level of 
dollars and cents. 

Lincoln's Warning. — In 1S59 Abraham Lincoln wrote a letter to 
the Eepublicans of Boston who were celebrating Jefferson's birthday, 
and in the course of the letter he said : "The Eepublican party believes 
in the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict it believes in the man 
before the dollar." In the early years of his administration he sent 
a message to Congress, and in that message he warned his country- 
men against the approach of monarchy. And what was it that alarmed 
him? He said it was the attempt to put capital upon an equal footing 
with, if not above, labor in the structure of government, and in that 
attempt to put capital even upon an equal footing with labor in the 
structure of government he saw the approach of monarchy. Lincoln 
was right. Whenever you put capital upon an equal footing with labor 
or above labor in the structure of government you are on the road 
toward a government that rests not upon reason but upon force. 

Nothing is more important than that we shall in the beginning 
rightly understand the relation between money and man. Man is the 
creature of God and money is the creature of man. Money is made 
to be the servant of man, and I protest against all theories that 
enthrone money and debase mankind. 

What is the purpose of the trust or the monopoly? For when I 
use the word trust I use it in the sense that the trust means monopoly. 
What is the purpose of monopoly ? You can find out from the speeches 



American History. 387 

made by those who are connoctecl with trusts. I have here a speech 
made by Charles E. Flint at Boston on the twenty-fifth day of last 
May, and the morning papers of the twenty-sixth in describing the 
meeting said he defended trust principles before an exceedingly sym- 
pathetic audience, and then added: "For his audience was composed 
almost exclusively of Boston bankers." "We thus secure," he says, 
"the advantages of larger aggregations of capital and ability; if I 
am asked what they are, the answer is only difficult because the list 
is so long." 

Advantages Claimed by the Trust. — But I want now to quote to 
you a few of the advantages to be derived by the trusts from the trust 
system. "Raw material bought in large quantities is secured at lower 
prices." That is the first advantage. One man to buy wool for all 
the woolen manufacturers. That means that every man who sells wool 
must sell it at the. price fixed by this one purchaser in the United 
States. The first thing is to lower the price of raw material. The 
great majority of the people are engaged in the production of raw 
material and in the purchase of finished products. Comparatively 
few can stand at the head of syndicates and monopolies and secure 
the profits from them. Therefore, the first advantage of a monopoly 
is to lower the price of the raw material furnished by the people. 
Xote the next advantage : "Those plants which are best equipped and 
most advantageously situated are run continuoush' and in preference 
to those less favored." 

The next thing, after they have bought all the factories, is to 
close some of them and to turn out of employment the men who are 
engaged in them. If you will go about over the country you will see 
where people have subscribed money to establish enterprises, and 
where these enterprises, having come under the control of the trusts, 
have been closed and stand now as silent monuments of the trust 
system. 

Behold the next advantage: "In case of local strikes and fires. 



388 Memoeial Volume op 

the -work goes on elsewhere, thus preventing serious loss." Do not 
the laboring men understand what that means? "In case of local 
strikes or fires, the work goes on elsewhere, thus preventing serious 
loss." What does it mean? It means that if the people employed in 
one factory are not satisfied with the terms fixed by the employer, 
and strike, the trust can close that factory and let the employes starve 
while work goes on in other factories, without loss to the manufac- 
turers. 

How Labor Is Oppressed. — It means that when the trust has 
frozen out the striking employes in one factory and compelled them to 
return to work at any price to secure bread for their wives and children, 
it can provoke a strike somewhere else and freeze the workmen out 
there. "When a branch of industry is entirely in the hands of one great 
monopoly, so that every skilled man in that industry has to go to the 
one man for employment, then that one man will fix wages as he 
pleases, and the laboring men will share the suffering of the man who 
sells the raw materials. 

"There is no multiplication of the means of distribution, and a 
better force of salesmen takes the place of a large number." That is 
the next advantage named. I want to warn you that when the 
I'lonopoly has absolute control, brains will be at a discount, and rela- 
tives will be found to fill these positions. When there is competition 
every employer has to get a good man to meet competition, but when 
there is no competition, anybody can sit in the office and receive let- 
ters and answer them, because everybody has to write to the same 
house for anything he wants. There is no question about it. A trust, 
a monopoly, can lessen the cost of distribution. But when it does so 
society has no assurance that it will get anything of the benefits from 
that reduction of cost. But you will take away the necessity for skill 
and brains. You will take away the stimulus that has given to us the 
quick, the ever alert commercial traveler. These commercial evangel- 
ists, who go from one part of the country to the other, proclaiming the 



American History. 389 

■merits of their respective goods, will not be needed, because when any- 
body wants merchandise, all he has to do is to write to the one man 
who has the article for sale and say, "What will you let me have it 
for to-day ?" 

And here is another advantage: "Terms and conditions of sale 
become more uniform and credit can be more safely granted." The 
trust cannot only fix the price of what it sells, but it can fix the terms 
upon which it sells. You can pay cash, or, if there is a discount, it is 
just so much discount, and you have to trust to the manager's gener- 
osity as to what is fair when he is on one side and you on the other. 

The Promise to Lower Prices. — What is the first thing to be 
expected of a trust? That it will cut down expenses. What is the 
second? That it will raise prices. We have not had in this country 
a taste of a complete trust, a complete monopoly, and we cannot tell 
what will be the results of a complete monopoly by looking at the 
results that have followed from an attempt to secure a monopoly. A 
corporation ma}'^ lower prices to rid itself of competitors; but when 
it has rid itself of competitors, what is going to be the result? My 
friends, all you have to know is human nature. God made men 
selfish. I do not mean to say that He made a mistake when He did, 
because selfishness is merely the outgrowth of an instinct of self- 
preservation. It is the abnormal development of a man's desire to 
protect himself; but ever3'body who knows human nature knows how 
easy it is to develop that side of a man's being. Occasionally I find 
a man who says he is not selfish, but when I do, I find a man who can 
prove it only by his own affidavit. 

I believe in self-government. I believe in the doctrines that 
underlie this government. I believe that people are capable of gov- 
erning themselves. Why ? Because in their sober moments they have 
helped to put rings in their own noses, to protect others from them- 
selves and themselves from others in hours of temptation. And so I 
believe we must recognize human nature. We must recognize selfish- 



390 Memorial Volume op 

ness, and we must so make our laws that people shall not be per- 
mitted to trespass upon the rights of others in their efforts to secure 
advantages for themselves. 

How Society Is Interested. — I believe society is interested in the 
independence of every citizen. I wish we might have a 
condition where every adult who died might die leaving to his widow 
and children enough proj)erty for the education of his children and 
the support of his widow. Society is interested in this because if 
a man dies and leaves no provision for his wife and children, the 
burden falls upon society. But while I wish to see every person secure 
for himself a competency, I don't want him to destroy more than he is 
worth while he is doing that. And I believe the principle of monopoly 
finds its inspiration in the desire of men to secure by monopoly what 
they cannot secure in the open field of competition. In other words, 
if I were going to try to find the root of the monopoly evil, I would 
do as I have often had occasion to do — go back to the Bible for an 
explanation — and I would find it in the declaration that the love of 
money is the root of all evil. 

Let me repeat that the primary cause of monopoly is the love of 
money and the desire to secure the fruits of monopoly; but I believe 
that falling prices, caused by the rising dollar, have contributed to this 
desire, and intensified it, because people, seeing the fall in prices, and 
measuring the loss of investments, have looked about for some means 
to protect themselves from this loss, and they have joined in combina- 
tions to hold up prices to protect their investments from a loss which 
Avould not have occurred but for the rise in the value of dollars and 
the fall in the level of prices. 

Another thing that, in my judgment, has aided monopoly is a 
high tariff. Nobody can dispute that a tariff law, an import duty, 
enables a trust to charge for its product the price of a similar foreign 
IDroduct plus the tariff. 



American History. 391 

Free Trade Not a Panacea. — Now, some have suggested that to 
put everything on the free list that trusts make would destroy the 
trusts. I do not agree with this statement, as it is made so broadly. I 
believe that the high tarifiE has been the means of extortion, and that 
it has aided trusts to collect more than they otherwise could collect. 
But I do not believe you could destroy all trusts by putting all trust- 
made articles on the free list. Why? Because, if an article can be 
produced in the country as cheaply as it can be produced abroad, the 
trust could exist without the aid of any tariff, although it could not 
extort so much as it could with the tariff. While some relief may 
come from modifications of the tariff, we cannot destroy monopoly 
until we lay the axe at the root of the tree and make monopoly impos- 
sible by law. 

It has been suggested that discrimination by railroads has aided 
trusts. No question about it. If one man can secure from a railroad 
better rates than another man, he will be able to run the other man 
out of business. And there is no question that discrimination and 
favoritism secured by one corporation against a rival have been largely 
instrumental in enabling the favored corporations to secure practically 
a complete monopoly. Now, that can be remedied by laws that will 
prevent this discrimination ; but when we prevent the discrimination — 
when we place every producer upon the same footing and absolutely 
prevent favoritism — monopoly may still exist. The remedy must go 
farther. It must be complete enough to prevent the organization of a 
monopoly. 

Now, what can be done to prevent the organization of a 
monopoly? I think we differ more in remedy than we do in our 
opinion of the trust. I venture the opinion that few people will 
defend monopoly as a principle, or a trust organization as a good 
thing, but I imagine our great difference will be as to remedy, and I 
want, for a moment, to discuss the remedy. 



592 Memorial Volume op 

How to Destroy Trusts Is the Question. — We have a dual form of 
government. We have a State government and a Federal government, 
and while this dual form of government has its advantages, and, to 
my mind, advantages which can hardly be overestimated, yet it also 
has its disadvantages. When you prosecute a trust in the United 
States court, it hides behind State sovereignty; and when you 
prosecute it in the State court, it rushes to cover under Federal 
jurisdiction — and we have had some difficulty in prosecuting a 
remedy. 

I believe we ought to have remedies in both State and nation, 
and that they should be concurrent remedies. In the first place, every 
State has, or should have, the right to create any private corporation 
Avhich, in the judgment of the people of the State, is conducive to the 
welfare of the people of that State. I believe we can safely intrust 
to the people of a State the settlement of a question which concerns 
them. If they create a corporation, and it becomes destructive of their 
best interests, they can destroy that corporation, and we can safely 
trust them both to create and annihilate, if conditions make annihila- 
tions necessary. In the second place, the State has, or should have, 
the right to prohibit any foreign corporation from doing business in 
the State, and it has, or should have, the right to impose such restric- 
tions and limitations as the people of the State may think necessary 
upon foreign corporations doing business in the State. In other 
words, the people of the State not only should have a right to create 
such corporations as they may want, but they should be permitted to 
protect themselves against any outside corporation. 

But I do not think this is sufficient. I believe that in addition 
to a State remedy there must be a Federal remed}^, and I believe Con- 
gress has, or should have, the power to place restrictions and limita- 
tions, even to the point of prohibition, upon any corporation organized 
in any State that wants to do business outside of the State. I say that 
Congress has, or should have, power to place upon the corporation 



Ammican History. 393 

such limitations and restrictions, even to the point of prohibition, as 
may to Congress seem necessary for the protection of the public. 

let the People's Voice Decide.— Now, T believe that these con- 
current remedies will prove effective. To repeat, the people of every 
State shall first decide whether they want to create a corporation. 
They shall also decide wdiether they want any outside corporation to 
do business in the State ; and, if so, upon what conditions ; and then 
Congress shall exercise the right to place upon every corporation doing 
business outside of the State in which it is organized such limitations 
and restrictions as may be necessary for the protection of the public. 

I do not believe that the people of one State can rely upon the 
people of another State in the management of corporations. I am 
ready to adopt any method that anybody can propose that looks to 
the annihilation of the trusts. 

One method has occurred to me, and it seems to me a complete 
method. It is this : That Congress should pass a law providing that 
no corporation organized in any State should do business outside of 
the State in which it is organized until it receives from some power 
created by Congress a license authorizing it to do business outside 
of its own State. Now, if the corporation must come to this body 
created by Congress to secure permission to do business outside of the 
State, then the license can be granted upon conditions which will, in 
the first place, prevent the watering of stock ; in the second place, pre- 
vent monopoly in any branch of business ; and, third, provide for pub- 
licity as to all of the transactions and business of the corporation. 

Amend the Constitution. — If such law be unconstitutional, and 
it has been so declared by the Supreme Court, I am in favor of an 
amendment to the Constitution that will give Congress power to 
destroy every trust in the country. The first condition wdiich I sug- 
gest is that no water should be allowed in the stock. I do not agree 
with those who say it is a matter entirely immaterial whether a cor- 
poration has water in its stock or not. It may be true that, in the 



394 Memorial Volume of 

long run, if you are able to rim as long as the corporation can, the 
stock will fall to its natural level; but during all that time the harm 
goes on; during all that time the trust demands the right to collect 
dividends upon capital represented by no money whatever. I do not 
believe that any State should permit the organization of a corporation 
with a single drop of water in the stock of that corporation. The 
farmer cannot inflate the value of his land by watering the value of 
that land. The merchant in the store cannot inflate the value of the 
goods upon his shelves. Why should the corporation be permitted to 
put out stock that represents no real value ? 

Why, there are instances where there are $4 of water for $1 of 
money. Xo man can defend stock that does not represent money 
invested, and only in the case of a monopoly can you secure dividends 
upon stock that does not represent money invested. In my judgment, 
when you take from monopoly the power to issue stock not repre- 
sented by money, you will go more than half the way toward destroy- 
ing monopoly in the United States. 

The law should provide for publicity. As has been well said, cor- 
porations cannot claim that they have a right, or that it is necessary, 
to cover their transactions with secrecy, and when you provide for 
publicity, so that the people can know just what there is in the cor- 
poration, just what it is doing, and just what it is making, you will 
take another long step toward the destruction of monopoly. 

To Make Monopoly Impossible. — But T am not willing to stop 
there. I do not want to go one or two steps ; I want to go all the way, 
and make a monopoly absolutely impossible. And, therefore, as a 
third condition, I suggest that this license shall not be granted until 
the corporation shows that it has not had a monopoly and is not 
attempting a monopoly of any branch of industry or of any article 
of merchandise — and then provide that, if the law is violated, the 
license can be revoked. T do not believe in the government giving 
privileges to be exercised by a corporation without reserving the right 



American History. 395 

to withdraw them when those privileges have become hurtful to the 
people. 

Now I may be mistaken, but as I have studied the subject it has 
seemed to me that this method of dealing with the trusts would prove 
an effective method; but if you once established the system and 
require the license, then Congress can, from year to year, add such 
new conditions as may be necessary for the protection of the public 
from the greed and avarice of great aggregations of wealth. I do not 
go so far as some do, and say that there shall be no private corpora- 
tions; but I say this — that a corporation is created by law; that it is 
created for the public good, and that it should never be permitted to 
do a thing that is injurious to the public, and that if any corporation 
enjoys any privileges to-day which are hurtful to the public, those 
privileges ought to be withdrawn from it. In other words, I am will- 
ing that we should first see whether we can preserve the benefits of the 
corporation and take from it its possibilities for harm. 

My contention is that we have been placing the dollar above the 
man; that we have been picking out favorites and bestowing upon 
them special privileges, and every advantage we have given them has 
been given them to the detriment of other people. My contention is 
that there is a vicious principle running through the various policies 
which we have been pursuing ; that in our taxation we have been impos- 
ing upon the great struggling masses the burden of government, while 
we have been voting the privileges to a few people who will not pay 
their share of the expenses of the government. 

Unjust Tax a Larceny. — Every unjust tax law is an indirect 

form of larceny. If, for instance, a man who ought to pay $10 only 

pays $5, and one who ought to pay only $5 pays $10, the law that 

compels this contribution from these two men virtually takes $5 from 

one man's pocket and puts that $5 into the other man's pocket, and I 

have claimed that when we collected our taxes we were making the 

poor people pay not only their share, but the share of the men whom 
26 



396 Memorial Volume of 

they have no chance to meet at the summer resorts. There are some 
people who have visible property, others who have invisible property, 
and the visible property is always taxed. The invisible property has 
too often escaped, and as a result the people owning visible property 
have not only paid their own taxes, but the taxes that should have been 
paid by the owners of invisible property. I have advocated an income 
tax because I believe it the most just tax. 

If the government will quit picking out favorites, and follow the 
doctrine of equal rights to all and special privileges to no man, I have 
no fear that any man, by his own brain or his own muscle, will be able 
to secure a fortune so great as to be a menace to the welfare of his 
fellowmen. If we secure a government whose foundations are laid 
in justice and laws exemplifying the doctrine of equality before the 
law — if we can secure such a government and such laws — and wealth 
is then accumulated to a point where it becomes dangerous, we can 
meet that question when it arises, and I am willing to trust the 
wisdom of society to meet every question that arises and remedy every 
wrong. 

The Millionaire a Menace. — As to the multi-millionaires now in 
existence, I would wait and see whether they would die off soon 
enough to relieve the country of danger. Life is short. If, however, 
their accumulations should become a menace, I would then consider 
what measures would be necessary for the protection of society. And 
this brings me to what I regard as a very important branch of this 
subject. Every trust rests upon a corporation — at least, that rule is 
so nearly universal that I think we can accept it as a basis for legisla- 
tion. Every trust rests upon a corporation, and every corporation is a 
creature of law. The corporation is a man-made man. 

When God made man as the climax of creation, he looked upon 
his work and said that it was good, and yet when God finished His 
work the tallest man was not much taller than the shortest, and the 
strongest man was not much stronger than the weakest. That was 



American History. 397 

God's plan. "We looked upon His work and said that it was not quite 
as good as it might be, and so we made a fictitious person called a 
corporation, that is in some instances a hundred times, a thousand 
times, a million times stronger than the God-made man. Then we 
started this man-made giant out among the God-made men. When 
God made man He placed a limit to his existence, so that if he was a 
bad man he could not do harm long; but when we made our man- 
made man, we raised the limit as to age. In some States a corpora- 
tion is given perpetual life. 

AYhen God made man He breathed into him a soul, and warned 
him that in the next world he would be held accountable for the 
deeds done in the flesh ; but when we made our man-made man we did 
not give him a soul, and if he can avoid punishment in this world, he 
need not worry about the hereafter. 

The Right of Government to Control. — 'Mj contention is that 
the government that created must retain control, and that the man- 
made man must be admonished : "Remember now thy Creator in the 
days of thy youth,"' and throughout thy entire life. 

Let me call your attention again to this distinction. We are not 
dealing with the natural man ; we are not dealing with natural rights. 
We are dealing with the man-made man and artificial privileges. 
What government gives the government can take away. What the 
government creates it can control, and I insist that both the State 
government and the Federal government must protect the God-made 
man from the man-made man. 

I have faith that these questions will be settled, and settled right, 
but I want to protest against this doctrine that the trust is a natural 
outgrowth of natural laws. It is not true. The trust is the natural 
outgrowth of unnatural conditions created by man-made laws. There 
are some who would defend everything, good or bad, on the ground 
that it is destiny and that you cannot inquire into it. The fact that 
it is proves that it is right; the fact that it is proves that it has come 



398 Memorial Volume of 

to slay, and the argument most frequently made in defence of a vicious 
system is, not that it is right and ought to stay, but that it has come 
to stay whether you like it or not. I say that that is the argument 
that is usually advanced in behalf of an error — it is here ; it has come 
to stay — what are you going to do about it ? 

All Evil Is Remediable. — I believe that, in a civilized society, the 
question is not what is but what ought to be, and that every proposi- 
tion must be arraigned at the bar of reason. If you can prove that a 
thing is good, let it stay; but if you cannot prove that it is good, you 
cannot hide behind the assertion that it is here and that you cannot 
get rid of it. I believe that the American people can get rid of any- 
thing that they do not want — and that they ought to get rid 
of everything that is not good. I believe that it is the duty of every 
citizen to give to his countrymen the benefit of his conscience and his 
judgment, and cast his influence, be it small or great, upon the right 
side of every question that arises. In the determination of questions 
we should find out what will make our people great and good and 
strong rather than what will make them rich. "A good name is rather 
to be chosen than great riches." Shall we decide the ethics of larceny 
by discussing how much the man is going to steal or the chances of his 
getting caught? No, my friends, we must decide questions upon a 
higher ground, and if you were to prove to me that a monopoly would 
reduce the price of the articles that we have to purchase, I would still 
be opposed to it for a reason which, to my mind, overshadows all 
pecuniary arguments. The reason is this : Put the industrial system 
of this nation in the hands of a few men, and let them determine the 
price of raw material, the price of the finished product, and the wages 
paid to labor, and you will have an industrial aristocracy beside which 
a landed aristocracy would be an innocent thing. 

Principles of the Declaration Violated. — I may be in error, but 
in my judgment a government of the people, by the people, and for the 
people, will be impossible when a few men control all the sources of 



American History. 599 

production and dole out daily broad to all the rest on such terms as 
the few may prescribe. I believe that this nation is the hope of the 
world. I believe that the Declaration of Independence was the grand- 
est document ever penned by human hands. The truths of that decla- 
ration are condensed into four great propositions : That all men are 
created equal; that they are endowed with inalienable rights; that 
governments are instituted among men to preserve those rights, and 
that governments derive tlieir just powers from the consent of the 
governed. Such a government is impossible under an industrial 
aristocracy. Place the food and clothing, all that we eat and wear and 
use, in the hands of a few people, and instead of being a government of 
the people it will be a government of the syndicates, by the syndicates, 
and for the syndicates. Establish such a government, and the people 
will soon be powerless to secure a legislative remedy for any abuse. 
Establish such a system, and on the night before election the employes 
will be notified not to come back on the day after election unless the 
trusts' candidate is successful. Establish such a government, and 
instead of giving the right of suffrage to the people, you will virtually 
give the right of suffrage to the heads of monopolies, with each man 
empowered to vote as many times as he has employes. I am not will- 
ing to place the laboring men of this country absolutely at the mercy 
of the heads of monopolies. I am not willing to place the men who 
produce the raw material absolutely in the hands of the monopolies, 
because when you control the price that a man is to receive for what 
he produces you control the price that he is to receive for his labor in 
the production of that thing. 

The farmer has no wages except as wages are measured by the 
price of his product, and when you place it in the power of the trust 
to fix the price of what the farmer sells, you place it in the power of 
the trust to lower the wages that the farmer receives for his 
work, and when you place it in the power of the trust to raise the 
price of what he buys, you do the farmer a double injury, because he 



400 Memorial Volume of 

burns the candle at both ends and suffers when he sells to the trust and 
again when he buys of the trust. 

All Labor on an Equality. — Some people have tried to separate 
the laboring man who works in the factory from the laboring man 
who works on the farm. I want to warn the laboring men in the 
factories that they cannot separate themselves from those who toil on 
the farm without inviting their own destruction. I beg the laboring 
men in the factories not to join the monopolies to crush the farmer, 
for as soon as the farmer is crushed the laboring man will be crushed, 
and in a test of endurance the farmer will stand it longer than the 
laboring man. 

I come from an agricultural State — one of the great agricul- 
tural States of this nation — and I want to say to you that while our 
people are, I believe, a unit against the trusts, we can stand the trusts 
longer than the laboring man can; we can stand all the vicious poli- 
cies of government longer than the laboring man can. The farmer 
was the first man on the scene when civilization began, and he will 
be the last one to disappear. The farmer wants to own his home ; he 
ought to own it. I think that this nation is safer the larger the jiro- 
portion of home-owners, I want every man with a family to own his 
home; the farmer wants to own his home, but if you will not allow 
him to own his home, he can rent. He will have to be employed to 
work the farm. 

Take his farm from him by mortgage if you like, but the man 
who forecloses the mortgage and buys the property will not work the 
farm. He will need the farmer to work for him, and he will have to 
give the farmer enough to live on or the farmer cannot work. When 
prices fall so low that the farmer cannot buy coal, he can burn corn. 
But when prices fall so low that the coal miner cannot buy corn, he 
cannot eat coal. You can drive the farmer down so that he cannot 
buy factory-made goods, but his wife can do like the wife of old — 
make the clothing for the family off of the farm; but when you close 



Americax History, 401 

your factories it will take all of the accumulated wealth of the cities 
to feed the people brought to the point of starvation by vicious, 
greedy, avaricious legislation. 

A TJnion of Effort for Public Good. — But why should we try to 
see who can hold out the longest in suffering? Why try to see who 
can endure the most hardships and yet live ? "Why not try to see who 
can contribute most to the greatness and to the glory and to the pros- 
perity of this nation? Why not vie with each other to see who can 
contribute most to make this government what the fathers intended 
it to be ? For one hundred years this nation has been the light of the 
world. For one hundred years the struggling people of all nations 
have looked to this nation for hope and inspiration. Let us settle 
these great questions; let us teach the world the blessing of a govern- 
ment that comes from the people; let us show them how happy and 
how prosperous peoj)le can be. God made all men, and He did not 
make some to crawl on hands and knees and others to ride upon their 
backs. Let us show what can be done when we put into actual prac- 
tice the great principles of human equality and of equal rights. Then 
this nation will fulfill its holy mission, and lead the other nations step 
by step in the progress of the human race toward a higher civilization. 



26 



402 Memorial Volume of 



OUR CURRENCY AND BUSINESS NEEDS. 



BY HON. LYMAN J. GAGE, 

Secretary of the Treasury. 



Thomas Benton left behind him a valuable record of his political 
experience in his "Thirty Years in the United States Senate." Mr. 
Blaine did a similar work in his "Twenty Years in Congress." The 
memoirs of Generals Grant and Sherman give to us the story of varied 
movements by contesting armies upon many bloody battlefields. But 
no one to my knowledge has recorded with any fidelity the dramatic 
movements to which by outward influences the life of the business man 
has been subjected since the year 1865 or 1870. The business man, I 
know, is nowhere regarded as a hero or statesman. He neither makes 
laws nor conducts military campaigns. He is so common a factor in 
the operations of ordinary life that he fails to attract the public eye. 
Xevertheless, within the range of his activities the wisdom of the states- 
man and the courage of the war leader are often required of him. If 
he cannot make law he must always be on the alert to watch the laws 
that are made. If such laws touch upon the field of economics he 
must anticipate their action and adjust to their operation and antici- 
pated effects. If he cannot direct the movement of armies and win at 
once victory and fame, he must be quick to know the commercial effect 
of battles, sieges and long-drawn campaigns. The last thirty years 
have been to him a period of dangerous vicissitudes and peculiar trials. 

Money Which Had Only Local Value. — In the year 1870 all busi- 
ness affairs were carried on in the United States with a medium of 
exchange entirely dislocated from the world's money standard. Prices 
of all commodities, wares and labor service were stated in terms of an 
irredeemable currencv. All time accounts were payable in the same 



American History, 403 

mone}'. And yet in itself that mone}' was no true measure of tlio 
values which it served to transfer. Every commodity having in any 
of its parts or as a whole a value in foreign markets was really 
measured by its price in gold in the world's market. The value of 
the "greenback" was itself related to gold, and upon the unsettled sea 
of the public credit the value of our domestic money rose and fell. 
Goods or manufactures sold one day at an apparent profit on their 
previous cost could not on the day or the week following be replaced 
with the amount received in payment. 

Have you ever studied the oscillations in value of that instrument 
of exchange by which, perforce, all our domestic trade and commerce 
was conducted? Let us glance at the records. On January 1, 1862, 
the greenback was worth one hundred cents in gold. In twelve months 
it fell 31 jier cent. The next seven months it advanced 15 per cent on 
its previous price. The next five months afterward it fell 18 per cent. 
Then in six months more it fell -40 per cent. In the next six months it 
advanced 20 per cent. Then in six months more it fell 40 per cent. 
The next six months it advanced 52 per cent. In the next twelve 
months it fell 6 per cent. The next six months it rose 13 per cent. 
Then it rose 10 per cent in three years — that is, for January, 
1870, it stood at 82.4. It then in two years rose 11 per cent. In 
January, 1875, it was rated as worth 89.9. From that year, when 
the Eesumption Act was passed, the oscillations were less marked, 
a range of from five to seven per cent per annum, with a general 
upward movement to January 1, 1879, when once more one dollar in 
greenbacks would command one dollar in gold. 

While I have noted these fluctuations by convenient periods, it 
must not be forgotten that each and every day between the periods 
there were minor but constant fluctuations. With what certainty of 
direction could the mariner sail his ship if the compass by which he 
reckoned was subject to such lawless aberrations ? At noon each day 
he could determine by the sun how far he was off his course, but this 



404 Memorial Volume of 

would always be after the fact. It would not help his calculations for 
the morrow. Xo wonder men mistook loss for profit and profit for loss. 

Evils of a Credit System. — Under such conditions trade degener- 
ated into mere speculation. Every fall in the value of the money 
was at once expressed, or ought to have been expressed, by a rise in the 
price of commodities. Those who bought most largely on credit 
and made the fewest sales realized profits in excess of the legitimate 
and careful trader, who had a conscience about credit, and who believed 
it was the business of a merchant to distribute his wares. Inventories 
showed wealth in figures. They encouraged extravagance, but in many 
cases the wealth in figures became the father of bankruptcy in fact. 
By the year 1873 the bitter fruits of the artificial condition appeared. 
The simulacrum of prosperity was dissolved. The system of credits, 
extended and enlarged by years of rising prices, fell into ruin. Mer- 
chants, manufacturers, bankers and transportation lines one after 
another shared a common fate. 

Looking backward it now appears a strange coincidence that in 
that same year, 1873, a piece of legislation should have been inaugu- 
rated which was in after years to save the country from a repetition 
of the injurious effects of a rapidly depreciating money. In that year 
the coinage laws were revised, and with no comprehension of the great 
economic consequences involved in it the unit of value was made to 
consist of gold, while the silver dollar was dropped from the coinage. 

Great efforts have been made to prove that this action was the 
result of a wicked scheme of the money power. However wicked the 
money power may be, it does not deserve credit for omniscience, and 
omniscience alone could have forseen that the commercial value of 
the silver dollar, then greater than its yellow brother, gold, would 
steadily decline to a fraction of its then equivalent. Whether this 
legislative act was purely fortuitous, or whether it was a providential 
interposition, as a critical period in our national life, the event was one 
of far-reaching importance. Had it not occurred as it did, and when 



American History. 405 

it did, there is no room whatever to doubt that after climbing the hill 
to specie payments in 1879, we should have repeated, through the effect 
of silver as our standard money, the losses and crosses which marked 
the depreciation of our paper money from 1804 to 1879. It is very 
certain that if the coinage act of 1873 had been delayed five years, or 
even three years, it would never have been adopted. 

Free Coinage a Business Menace. — The proof lies in the frantic 
efforts of a powerful party to secure a repeal of that act. The effort 
began in 1878, when silver had already fallen in price. That effort has 
not been relazed to this day, though faith in its success is giving way. 
Notwithstanding the failure to secure the free coinage at our mints, 
at the old ratio of 16 to 1, the effort to achieve that result has been, 
until a recent period, a most disturbing influence upon business affairs. 
The legislative struggle for free coinage began in 1878. Though unsuc- 
cessful, it forced injurious compromises. The Bland Act of 1878 
required the purchase and coinage by the government of $2,000,000 in 
silver per month. The so-called Sherman Act of 1890 required the 
purchase of not less than 4,500,000 ounces per month. The total 
effect of these doings was to force into the channels of circulation 
something more than $500,000,000, nominal value, in money, the real 
value of which in the world's market is now less than one-half of that 
sum. The great loss involved in the transaction has been assumed by the 
government, as it ought to have been, since it is right that the risk 
and burden of a public folly should be distributed over all the people. 

During the long period from 1878 to 1893, when the act was 
repealed, there was constant fear that our finances would degenerate to 
what is popularly called the silver basis. This fear intimidated capital, 
restricted enterprise and gave to all engaged in business activities a 
a sense of doubt and apprehension. 

The Panic of 1893.— In 1893, when the repeal of the Sherman 
law hung in the balances, the fear culminated in the most destructive 
panic in our history. It may not be just to ascribe that business 



406 Memoeial Volume of 

reaction to the silver question alone. Depression and reaction will 
come as the natural result of overtrading, speculation and injudicious 
credit. These causes no doubt co-operated to produce the panic of 1893, 
but they are intensely aggravated by the silver question, so-called, 
The year 1896 witnessed in a milder form the commercial experience 
of 1893, and it is not unjust to charge the perturbation of 1896 to the 
fear that a revolution in our standard money was at hand. 

I have pointed out the disturbing and injurious effect of a depre- 
ciated paper money. It will be seen that a depreciated metallic money 
would have been scarcely less injurious. I will pass by any consideration 
of the shock and loss of the change from the gold to the silver standard 
and refer only to the fluctuations in silver as measured by the world's 
money, gold, during the years 1873 to 1893. In 1873 the silver in a 
silver dollar would buy in the market one dollar and one and six-tenths 
cents in gold. In 1878 the silver in a silver dollar would but buy 89.2 
cents in gold. In 1883 it would buy 85.8; in 1888, 72.7; in 1893,60.4, 
and in 1896 the silver in a silver dollar could buy but 45.6 cents in 
gold. Between these dates there were continuous oscillations in rela- 
tive value up and down between silver and gold. The range of fluctua- 
tion was much more limited than that experienced with our irredeem- 
able paper, but was violent enough to cause a constant and deeply 
injurious derangement to trade and industry. 

Constantly in peril, our domestic money of account has neverthe- 
less been steadily maintained by the public credit on an even parity with 
the world standard, gold. The act of Congress, which, by the approval 
of the President, became the law on March 14, 1900, sets at rest this 
disturbing question of the standard. Unless the credit of the govern- 
ment shall utterly fail, the assurance is absolute that for at least six 
years we are safe from change. The business man may now know 
that his goods, sold on four months' credit, will be paid for in money 
equal in value to that represented in the goods sold. The foundation 
of credit and commerce is at last secure. All our kinds of money 



American History. 407 

are equal in value with one another, and all alike are as good as 
gold. 

The Deranging Effects of Tariff Changes. — In addition to the 
disconcerting influences already referred to, it is proper to put some 
emphasis upon the deranging effect of tariff changes. Of these, during 
the thirty-year period, there have been several of a radical character. 
I cannot speak of them at length, nor will I undertake to discuss the 
economic theories by which the more radical changes have been justi- 
fied in the opinion of the political power which inaugurated them. 
Whether meritorious in fact and ultimately of general benefit, every 
such change in the cause of economic disturbance to the commercial and 
industrial status quo. They give at least great temporary advantage 
to the few at the cost and loss of the many. 

There were several modifications and revisions in the war tariff 
between the years 1863 and 1876. These modifications occurred in the 
years 1864, 1865, 1867, 1870, 1872 and 1875. In 1883 there was a 
general revision of the tariff laws which carried a considerable reduc- 
tion in the rates of duty. Seven years after — 1890— radical changes 
were made by which duties were largely increased. Again, in 1894, 
what was known as the Wilson Act worked a large reduction in the 
average rates of the McKinley tariff. Four years after, the Dingley 
Act of 1898 took the place of the Wilson Act, and the rates therein 
established now continue to be the law. 

Panics of Eecent Years. — I cannot stop to more than suggest 
the several periods during the last thirty years, when sudden derange- 
ments have occurred from causes outside of those enumerated. In 
1871 the Chicago fire destroyed $200,000,000 of existing capital. 
Through the beneficence of insurance, and by reason of a wide-spread- 
ing network of relationship through credit and otherwise, the strain 
of the loss was widely distributed. Yet it brought financial ruin to 
thousands. In 1884 the failure of a great bank in New York caused a 
forced liquidation, which involved serious losses to many. In 1890 the 



408 Memorial Volume of 

Barings, in London, suspended payment, with liabilities of $150,000,- 
000. While the shock of this disaster wasj much softened by the 
courageous action of the Bank of England and its associates, the 
depressing effect of the failure on industrial undertakings was felt 
throughout the civilized world. 

In 1894, when our domestic business life was fairly emerging from 
the dark days which followed 1893, the Venezuela message brought us 
suddenly face to face with the possibilities of war with our best 
customer. Politically considered, the message may have been justified ; 
I am not considering that question. I think it, however, safe to 
affirm that economically looked at it was a severe blow to reviving 
industry. It developed a new crisis in commercial affairs and seriously 
impeded the revival of business. 

In 1898 we faced the actualities of war with all its possibilities 
of cost in treasure and loss in precious lives. Again was the man 
of business affairs and responsibilities compelled to forecast contin- 
gencies and consequences, which it required the gift of foreknowledge 
to properly comprehend. 

Marvelous Increase and Prosperity. — Since 1870 the population 
has increased substantially 100 per cent. In the same time our annual 
expenditures in the cause of public education have increased 227 per 
cent. The number of newspapers and periodicals, 261 per cent. The 
number of post offices, 163 per cent. The receipts of the Post Office 
Department, although postal rates have been lowered, were 380 per cent 
greater last year than in 1870. The number of telegrams showed an 
increase of 739 per cent. The miles of railroad operated in 1870 were 
52,822; in 1899 they were 186,810, an increase of 253 per cent. The 
increase in tons of freight carried one mile shows an increase in twenty 
years of 192 per cent; we have no data prior to 1880; while the freight 
rate per ton per mile fell 61 per cent. While in general the vessel 
tonnage shows no gain, but a serious decline, it is notable that the 
tonnage by water through the Sault Ste. Marie Canal increased 3000 



American History. 409 

per cent. lu agriculture, wheat and corn have not much increased 
beyond the ratio of increase in population. The diversity of products 
has greatly increased. In cotton during the thirty years there has 
been an increase of 300 per cent, while population was increased 100 
per cent. 

Our growth in manufacturing has some remarkable illustrations. 
Our own cotton mills in 1870 used 857,000 bales. In 1899 they con- 
sumed 3,632,000 bales, an increase of 324 per cent. In 1870 we con- 
verted 583,000 pounds of raw silk into finished products. In 1899 we 
used 11,236,000 pounds, an increase of 1,825 per cent. We used' in 
manufactures last year 42,000,000 more pounds of crude rubber than 
in 1870, a growth of 431 per cent. The production of pig iron shows 
an increase of 607 per cent. The manufacture of steel grew from less 
than 69,000 in 1870 to nearly 13,000,000 tons in 1899, an increase 
of 12,893 per cent. For the same period the production of coal 
grew from 33,000,000 tons to 196,000,000 tons, an increase of 498 
per cent. The production of petroleum increased from 185,000,000 
gallons in 1870 to 2,000,325,000 gallons in 1898— a growth of 1,100 
per cent. The development of our manufacturing interests is best 
indicated, perhaps, by the increase in our export of manufactures. 
They increased from a valuation of $68,000,000 in 1870 to $338,- 
000,000 in 1899, or 396 per cent. Taking our foreign commerce as a 
whole, we have an export value in 1870 of $392,000,000, against 
$1,227,000,000 in 1899— an increase of 212 per cent, while during the 
same periods our imports increased but 60 per cent. Taken as a whole, 
for the four-year period, 1895 to 1899, the value of our exports was 
$1,534,000,000 in excess of our imports. 

Domestic Trade Gains. — Our internal domestic trade has shared 
in a similar development. The total freight carried one mile in 1898 
exceeded the amount carried in 1895 by 26,000,000,000 tons. This 
increase required the use of 300 trains, each loaded to the extent of 
1,000 tons, running continuously twenty-four hours each day through 



410 Memorial Volume of 

the entire year. But I will not burden you with further illustrations 
of our great development. The facts submitted are startling in their 
nature, and full of encouragement for the future. They prove the 
truth of the somewhat hackneyed phrase, "Peace hath her victories 
no less renowned than war." These triumphs of peace have been 
gained, as I have shown, amid many depressing influences. What 
might they not have been as the result of these years since 1860 could 
peace have prevailed, could the aberrations and vicissitudes caused by 
a bad money system have been avoided ? We need not, however, repine. 
We front the future well equipped with all the instruments of pro- 
ductivity. We have no complications with any. foreign power, threat- 
ening our peace or disturbing our commerce. The tokens of industrial 
prosperity appear on every hand. The revenues of the government are 
more than sufficient for all public requirements. The credit of the 
commercial community is such as to give a sense of freedom and secur- 
ity to commercial activities. Are we, therefore, safe in the future from 
the injurious influences which have disturbed the past? It would be 
gratifying to answer that question in the affirmative, but it cannot be 
so answered. 

Questions Which Remain to Be Settled. — The problems of life 
never cease. Old errors are resurrected and, clothed in new garb, afflict 
society until again laid to rest. Changing conditions also beget new 
problems. Prejudice and a lack of knowledge obscure the way. Some 
of these problems are immediately before us. The labor question, trans- 
portation, combinations of capital, are the names of those most promi- 
nent. In the field of production and exchange economic principles 
must be recognized and obeyed. Majority votes cannot alter them. 
To carefully study these principles with an earned desire to know the 
truth concerning them, to employ all energy in making it known 
among all the people are duties resting with solemn force upon the 
business men of America. They are duties which apathy and indif- 
ference will seek to avoid, but which patriotism and courage will 
gladly assume. _^,'- 



Ameeican History. 411 

OUR NEED OF A MERCHANT MARINE. 



BY HOX. GEORGE F. EDMUXDS. 



In my long service in the United States Senate I favored the tak- 
ing of measures to bring back the carrying trade into our own hands, 
and by that means to increase the exportation and sale of all the abun- 
dant productions of our country, beginning with the farm, the mine 
and the forest, and running through all our manufacturing industries 
to the very last and finest fabrications that, from the crude material, 
have gone through the hands of thousands of different workmen and 
have increased in value a thousand fold. 

It is this working up of the raw material and selling the final 
product that produces national prosperity and wealth, which means the 
gain and saving of the men and women, from the first to the last, who 
contribute to or do the work. The factory can do nothing without the 
first and essential aid of the farm, the mine and the forest. The work- 
men can do nothing without the mills, tools and other appliances of all 
sorts, nor without fair and prompt pay. They must support them- 
selves and their families in comfort and educate their children. Their 
emjiloyers cannot pay them unless they can find markets for and sell 
their goods so made. Therefore the more extensive and varied the 
markets the greater is the opportunity for all these co-operative works 
to go on successfully. All this is self-evident, but, like other self- 
evident truths, it cannot be stated too often, for on it depends the 
whole co-operative life and happiness of the nation. 

Community of Common Interest. — Thus it is manifest that every 
occupation and every accumulation of capital in our country have a 
common interest in promoting the increase of our export trade. How, 
then, can this be best done? The producing and commercial classes 



413 Memorial Volume of 

of other nations know and have known for a long time how they can 
achieve best these large ends for themselves; they and their govern- 
ments know that the only effectual way is to have the means of trans- 
portation their own and always in their own control, in peace and in 
war. They know that in time of peace the flag of their own country 
at the masthead is a constant guarantee of safety and respect, and also 
that it is a continual and free advertisement of the goods their ships 
carry as the production of their country. 

No farmer, if he could help it, would send his product to even the 
nearest market by the wagon of his neighboring farmer, or any other 
conveyance whose owner had the same sort of things to sell ; he knows 
that if he would find the best customers and get the best prices he must 
run his own wagon, or control his own means of transportation. The 
farmer, the miner, the manufacturer and the merchant, each and all 
are in the same case. In our own country and among themselves they 
know this perfectly well and act upon it as best they can. 

Any man, any nation or any country that trusts his or its com- 
petitors to do any part of his business is sure to fail in the end. All 
farmers, all miners, all the manufacturers and all the merchants, etc., 
make up the famly of the nation, for a nation is nothing else than a 
union of all these really co-operating families. Just like a single 
personal family, they must co-operate or else the family will grow poor 
in comparison with the neighboring family, of which all the members 
try to help each other. 

What, then, are we to do in order to restore in common to all our 
people the full and best benefits of trade in those foreign markets 
which may need our produce and manufactured articles of all kinds? 
That our means of communication and transportation are chiefly 
necessary the experience of centuries among all nations has proved 
true. A single illustration among scores that might be referred to of 
this truth may be stated. It appears in British history that our fore- 
fathers in the colonies had become "the carriers for all the colonies of 



American History. 413 

Xorth America and the West Indies," and that, as a consequence, the 
British home manufactures, as \yell as those of the Dutch, etc., were 
heing pushed out of the markets, and the produce and manufactures of 
our colonies carried in. So measures were taken by the British King 
and the British Parliament to grant monopolies to British companies 
to trade in the "West Indies. 

Advantage of Having Our Own Ships. — It may be stated briefly 
that the nation which has the quickest and best means of communi- 
cation, under its own flag and authority, with other nations will 
surely have the best share of foreign trade. 

As I have said, the flag of a country at the masthead of its ships 
is a great advertisement of the productions it has to sell, just as in 
every town of our country the name of the producer, the manufacturer 
and the merchant on his wagon that delivers his goods is. 

There are only four possible ways of reaching the end of putting 
our country for all its people on a fair footing with other countries in 
the respect before mentioned. 

First. — Discriminating duties. 

This method, in view of our treaties with many other nations, 
it would take a long time to put into operation — so long that the trade 
would become still more firmly established in the hands of our com- 
petitors, and, if adopted, would be likely to lead to countervailing dis- 
criminations by other governments. Eecent experience has also 
shown that very powerful, and, perhaps, controlling influences 
would very likely be able to prevent the adoption of discriminating 
duties, even in the cases where no treaty obligation stands in the way. 

Second. — It has been suggested that a bounty on the exportation 
in foreign as well as American vessels of the products of the farm, such 
as wheat and corn, etc., should be provided for by Congress. Such a 
scheme, I think, would prove wholly illusory. 

In the first place the producer, whose crop goes through the hands 
of the middlemen and the shippers, will surely find that he gets no 



414 Memorial Volume of 

more for his crop than he would without the bounty, and that the mid- 
dleman, the shipper and the foreign market agent have taken all the 
bounty, and that the Treasury of the United States, which is hia 
treasury, has been exhausted to that extent with no good to him. 

No Bounty Should Be Given. — In the second place it is perfectly 
plain that no law can be passed to give this bounty. The producers, 
the manufacturers and the laborers are all co-operative parts of the 
whole national family, and no class can or ought to be favored without 
the other. But it may be answered that we have given bounties to the 
fisheries and to the producers of sugar. So we have. 

As to fisheries, the bounties were given because we must have for 
national defence a portion of our citizens always taught and skillful in 
ships and the work of the sea, so that our navies might find the men 
ready to carry our flag on to victory, as at Manila and at Santiago, and 
in other like emergencies that for the present age are likely to come 
to every nation. 

As to the sugar bounty of a few years ago, it was given in order, 
if j)Ossible, to diminish the enormous drain on the earnings of our 
own people in buying foreign-grown sugar. 

If, for example, only one-tenth of the wheat, corn and pork con- 
sumed in the United States were produced in our countr}^, nearly 
every citizen would favor any law tending to increase home produc- 
tion. Happily for us, our farms, mines, forests and manufactured 
products do not in general fall into these classes. All are abundant, 
and in every part of our country almost all things necessary to the 
comfort of our people can be produced, and thus every interest is 
reciprocally common with every other. A bounty, therefore, on the 
exportation of the particular products of one kind of industry would 
be an invidious distinction against all others. 

Third. — Postal subsidies have been suggested as an adequate 
means to aid in the restoration of American shipping. Such subsidies 
are undoubtedly usefi;l, as other nations have found, but they are 



American History. 415 

only uspfnl. or, indecfl, possible as auxiliary aids to morchant vessels 
carrying cargoes, and except on great and estal)lis]ied lines of trans- 
portation, it would be absolutely impossil)le to give postal subsidies 
sufficient to enable the vessels to run. 

A Real Remedy Proposed.— Fourth.— The only other method to 
the great national end that almost everybody professes to be for is the 
one substantially contained in the measure proposed in the last Con- 
gress. The measure has been so much misunderstood by some of 
those citizens who wish to increase our shipping interests, and so 
misrepresented by those who, from whatever motive, desire to prevent 
anything being done, that it is proper to state concisely what the fun- 
damental features of the measure were. 

1. It provided for the systematic payment, limited to a definite 
period of time, of sufficient compensation, and only a sufficient one, to 
American vessels sailing to and from foreign ports, in order to 
enable them to perform the voyage with a fairly full cargo of Ameri- 
can products and returning with a fairly full cargo of imports. 
Without the cargoes the ship owners could not afford to make the 
voyages and thus get the compensation. The effect, therefore, would 
be to help American cargoes in American ships to every foreign port 
where such cargoes could possibly be disposed of, and thus open to 
American trade in ports where American vessels are now almost 
never seen, and where a very few American products are now sold, as 
well as to increase our trade in ports and countries where we already 
have some trade carried on in foreign ships and always under the 
iniluence of foreign prejudice and foreign competition. 

A Bounty Which Everyone May Compete For. — 2. This first and 
main proposition made the business and the compensation open to 
every American shipbuilder, to every American ship owner and to 
every American industry. There could be no trusts, pools or syndi- 
cates, inasmuch as the sea is open to all, and a single ship with its 
cargo would be absolutely free and independent. No line or com- 



416 Memorial Volume of 

bination could be favored, as they must usually be and almost always 
are when subsidies are given to particular lines for carrying the mails, 
etc., etc. 

The treasury was guarded by the fact above stated that the ves- 
sels could not run without a paying cargo, for the compensation was 
so small that the cargo was indispensable to the profits of the voyage, 
and the sending of the cargoes is the very thing the people of the 
United States need to accomplish. 

4. The bill required that the ships built and used for this pur- 
pose should be capable of naval use in time of need and could be taken 
at any time by the United States for this purpose. 

5. The bill also provided for these vessels taking and educating 
a certain number of American boys in the various branches of sea- 
manship, so that if the vessels should be able to operate with the aid 
provided there would always be a large and increasing number of 
Americans who would be able in time of need to defend the interests 
of the country. 

6. The bill also provided that these vessels should carry the mails 
of the United States, whenever required, free of charge, and thus direct 
communication by postal facilities would be established to every port 
where these compensated vessels should go. 

7. The bill also provided that no arrangement should be made 
under it after ten years from the passage of the act, and it also provided 
for various and exhaustive limitations and safeguards in the interest of 
the public service. 

The foregoing is, in substance, a statement of the main and 
important features of the scheme. If we are really in earnest in wish- 
ing to take measures to increase our foreign trade and dispose of the 
vast and increasing amount of our surplus products by having the 
whole business, so far as possible, in our own hands, protected and 
advertised by our own flag, and put ourselves in a strong and undis- 
turbed position in case of war between the powers that now possess 



American History. 417 

the chief carrying trade of tlie globe, and if we wish to do it in such 
a way as to help all citizens alike, without favoritism and partiality, 
I know of no means so sure to accomplish it as the scheme above 
described. 

The state of commercial competition for foreign markets between 
the producing and manufacturing nations is growing more and more 
intense, and if anything is to be done to put the United States on a 
secure footing it should be done quickly. Other nations are perfectly 
right in taking every peaceable means to increase the markets for the 
sale of the productions of their citizens, but while our carrying trade 
remains in the hands of other nations our export trade will always be 
at a disadvantage, and in case of war between any of the principal 
powers would be in danger of being injuriously broken up or obstructed 
unless we shall have our own ships and our own flag to carry it on 
and protect it. 



27 



418 Memorial Volume of 



AN INTEROCEANIC CANAL. 



By Hon. William P. Hepburn, 

Member of Congress, Iowa. 



The subject of a canal connecting the waters of the Atlantic and 
Pacific oceans is one that for more than half a century has engaged 
the attention of the American people. The desire for its construc- 
tion seems to grow with the increase of our population, the develop- 
ment of our capacity of production, and the necessity for the expansion 
of our commerce. 

All of the great political parties of the country have demanded 
this waterway. Boards of trade, chambers of commerce, state legis- 
latures, and the American press have with marked unanimity spoken 
in favor of the early completion of this canal, and at various periods 
it has received the serious attention of the government. 

There seems to be but little doubt that the states of Nicaragua 
and Costa Eica will give their consent for the construction of this 
great work. These states are friendly disposed toward our* govern- 
ment and our people, and have interests connected with it that are, 
in proportion to wealth and population, even greater than ours. It 
will traverse either the border or the interior of ISTicaragua for a dis- 
tance of about one hundred and ninety miles. It will give to that 
state a waterway from its capital and its most productive region to 
the sea. It will place that country on one of the great waterways of 
the world, bringing it into immediate contact with a large foreign 
commerce and those who conduct it. The splendid soil and climate of 
their agricultural region will be seen and known in such a way as to 
compel immigration, settlement, and largely increased production. In 
very many ways the state will have advantages not now possessed and 



Amepjcan History. 419 

that will be for a long time lost if another route by which the oceans 
are connected should be adopted. All of these considerations induce 
the belief that these two enlightened states will be glad to aid our 
government cordially and efficiently in carrying out this great design. 

First Efforts to Build the Canal. — The practicability of this work 
is a question that has been thoroughly studied. As early as 1850 
Colonel 0. W. Childs, an eminent civil engineer, surveyed and located 
a canal route from Lake Nicaragua to the Pacific Ocean. He also made 
careful examination of the eastern division, extending from the lake 
to the mouth of the San Juan River. He reported the route to be 
practicable within the limits of reasonable cost. 

Twenty-two years later a careful survey of the whole route was 
made by Commander Lull, of the United States Navy. His compe- 
tency as an engineer is vouched for by his contemporaries. He spent 
much time in a patient investigation of the subject. He reported that 
the enterprise was feasible. Later Mr. A. G. Menocal, a naval engineer 
who is highly endorsed as reliable and competent, under the direction 
of the Maritime Canal Company, made very elaborate surveys of a 
route from Greytown to Brito, and he established a line and made 
estimates of its cost. These surveys and estimates were submitted to 
a board of five practical engineers occupying high places in their pro- 
fession in this country. His plans met with their hearty approval 
and were pronounced by them to be eminently practicable. 

In 1895, under the authority of Congress, the President 
appointed a commission of which Lieutenant-Colonel, now Brigadier- 
General, Ludlow, United States Army, was president. Rear-Admiral 
Endicott, United States Navy, and Mr. Noble^ a civil engineer of 
great experience and high repute, were the other members. This 
commission spent many months in personal examinations of the route, 
in making additional surveys, and in studying the surveys and plans 
made by others. Their careful studies resulted in the opinion that 
the enterprise of constructing the canal from an engineering stand- 
point was feasible. 



4?0 Memorial Volume of 

Two years ago still another commission was appointed by the 
President consisting of Eear-Admiral John G. Walker, United States 
Navy, Colonel Peter C. Haines, Corps of Engineers, United States 
Army, and Professor Lewis N. Haupt. This commission also spent 
many months along the line of the projected canal and in the study of 
the reports and surveys made by their predecessors. They also added 
very largely to the surveys theretofore made. They examined the work 
in all of its aspects, studying the conditions of the country, its precipi- 
tation, its geological formation, its liability to seismic disturbances, 
the labor supply, the cost of materials, and all of the questions sug- 
gested to prudent inquiry. 

Practicability of Constructing. — Their report in all of its ample 
details has just been laid before us, together with the reports of a large 
number of scientists and skilled engineers called to their aid. All 
agree that the canal can be constructed with all of its appurtenances 
within reasonable limits of cost. These reports above referred to, the 
opinions of the engineers and scientists believed to be entirely compe- 
tent for their work, justify us in recommending the undertaking of 
the enterprise as one that is entirely practicable, and that can be com- 
pleted for a sum of money the expenditure of which will be wise. 

It is true that the estimates of costs are variable, ranging as they 
do from less than $40,000,000 to a possible $145,000,000. It is, how- 
ever, proper to say that the size and character of the canal estimated 
for is as variable as is the cost. The earlier estimates were for a canal 
suited to ships of the times. The later estimates are for ships of this 
time. Fifteen feet depth and 50 feet width was the size of the earlier 
project. Thirty feet depth and 150 feet width are the dimensions of 
the later proposed canal. 

Of course an estimate for construction of a work like this in a 
tropical region, with excessive rainfall, in a sparsely settled country, 
destitute in a large degree of the necessary materials, must be more or 
less speculative. Much the larger portion of the unskilled labor will 



American History. 421 

have to be imported, which is also true of all of the skilled labor. Some 
of the streams that have to be dammed or diverted are torrential in 
character and in some instances drain large areas. Along the eastern 
coast the rainfall is nearly three hundred inches, and near the lake is 
nearly one hundred inches. These considerations greatly increase the 
labor of making reliable estimates, but it is believed that the addition 
of 50 per cent to the Chicago prices for construction in the eastern 
division and 33^ per cent to the Chicago prices in the western division, 
with 20 per cent added, or $118,113,700 in all, will be more than 
enough to cover the total cost of the canal. 

Its Benefits to Shipping. — In discussing the cash remuneration 
that will come to the United States from the ownership of this canal, 
estimates only can be made, and there has been great difference of 
opinion expressed by persons and writers on this subject, as to the 
extent of the use that would be made of the canal by the shipping of 
the world. One gentlemen has said that in his judgment not more 
than 300,000 tons would pass through the canal annually. Another 
has said that 11,000,000 tons would pass through the canal. Gentle- 
men connected with the Maritime Canal Company gave it as their 
opinion that 5,000,000 or 6,000,000 of tonnage would be the amount 
that would pass through the canal annually. 

Of course we have a right to assume that whatever the amount be, 
it would be an increasing amount from year to year. At present $1.55 
per ton is the toll charged for the use of the Suez Canal. If that 
rate was the rate charged at the Nicaragua Canal, and 4,000,000 be 
the tonnage passing through it, an aggregate sum of more than 
$6,000,000 would be the receipts. It is estimated that the cost of 
maintaining and operating the canal would be $1,000,000 annually. 
If the United States borrowed money to invest in the enterprise, this 
sum would pay the annual interest, the cost of maintaining and oper- 
ating, and leave a surplus of more than $1,000,000. And with the 
increasing tonnage we might reasonably hope for such accumulations 



423 Memorial Volume of 

of surplus as would in a few years fully reimburse the governmeiit for 
its outlay. Or if it should be the policy to use the canal to stimulate 
the building up of our merchant marine, it could be made a most 
powerful factor. 

The Great Savings Accomplished. — A British merchant trading 
from any port in Great Britain to Hongkong, chartering a 6,000 ton 
vessel and using the Suez Canal, must pay as tolls a sum in excess of 
$18,000 for the round voyage. His American rival trading from New 
York to Hongkong, using the Nicaragua Canal free of toll because he 
used a vessel made in an American shipyard, out of American material, 
and by American labor, and loaded with American merchandise, would 
possess marked advantages — advantages so marked as to make it to his 
interest to stimulate American shipbuilding. 

It is this kind of a canal, that may be used in this way — discrimi- 
nating in favor of our merchants and our shipbuilders, and our labor 
(if such should be the policy of the government) — that we are anx- 
ious to secure. 

We are aware that there are a number of persons who claim to 
have concessions from the governments of Nicaragua and Costa Eica 
investing them with rights to navigate the San Juan Eiver and Lake 
Nicaragua. Others claim to be authorized to construct this great 
waterway connecting the oceans. But it is believed by your committee 
that these rights have either lapsed or are of inconsiderable value, or 
have been obtained for speculative purposes. However this may be, it 
should be the purpose of the government to deal directly with the gov- 
ernments of Nicaragua and Costa Eica. Those governments can adjust 
all questions growing out of these concessions much more easily than 
the United States. It is not believed that any one of these real or 
alleged concessionnaires has any rights or interests that he can convey 
to the United States; and it is not deemed wise to have any Joint 
interest or interests or copartnership, or any interest growing out of 
corporate relations with any of these persons. It is our opinion that 



Amekicax Histoey. 433 

the people of the United States want a government canal, one that will 
be completely under the control of the United States. 

No Infringement of Foreign Rights. — It is claimed by some per- 
sons that creating this short passage to our Pacific possessions would 
be an invasion of the rights of other maritime nations ; that connect- 
ing the waters of two oceans is a matter of such vast concern that it 
becomes international in its character. But we think the people of 
no other country would have a right to object if the people of 
the United States saw fit to construct a ship canal from Xew York to 
San Francisco on the territory belonging solely to the United States. 
ISTor would the people of any other country have the right to object if 
Mexico on her own territory constructed a canal across the isthmus of 
Tehauntepec. Nor yet again could any one rightfully object to Nic- 
aragua constructing a canal on her own soil from the Caribbean Sea 
to the Pacific Ocean. Now, if this be true, if these states would have 
the right on their own territory, using their own means to provide for 
themselves this great advantage to their commerce, could not either 
one of them grant to another state upon terms entirely advantageous 
and satisfactory to the parties the right to construct a canal similar to 
the one under discussion ? 

Xo one would have the right to quarrel with Nicaragua in thus 
disposing to the United States of a right which unquestionably belongs 
to her. The fact that it would enable us in an emergency and in cer- 
tain directions to increase the efficiency of our navy, does not constitute 
such a state of facts as would allow our rivals to object to our build- 
ing this canal. Other nations are now making large additions to their 
naval power by the use of their shipyards. "We certainly possess the 
right to increase the efficiency of our navy by increasing the number 
of our ships. "When we have the ships we have the right to send them 
wherever we choose,^ and the mere fact that by the rapid transfer 
through the Nicaragua Canal of our naval vessels to the Pacific, or 
from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic, thus increasing the efficiency 



484 Memorial Volume of 

of a given squadron, surely ought not to be regarded as an undue 
advantage that the United States would have through this waterway. 

America Must Look to Her Interests. — We want to increase 
our power upon the high seas. Our people are intent upon having 
their full share of the commerce of the world. This canal is an 
aid in that direction. It is true that it will disturb the conditions 
of equality that now exist, but every effort that the successful mer- 
chant makes is an effort to disturb this equality, and to secure 
advantages for himself. Steamships instead of sailing vessels; the 
huge vessels of to-day instead of the smaller ones of fifty years ago; 
improvements in machinery, in manufacture — all of these are efforts 
to disturb the equality of conditions that exist between the merchants. 
They are all deemed justifiable, praiseworthy, and the securement of 
this short route is only an effort of greater magnitude in this same 
direction. We save 10,000 miles in the passage to China over the old 
route by way of Cape Horn. Our government would have precisely 
the same right to take offence at the use of the Suez Canal by British 
merchants, as would the English government at our using the jSTic- 
aragua Canal. 

At all events, we want our share of the world's commerce, and to 
secure it we must have all of the utilities that are possible, Nor can we 
expect to get our share without fierce struggles. There is now the most 
intense rivalry for this commerce on the part of commercial nations, 
and our rivals will use all political and commercial influences, and 
diplomacy with all of its arts, menacing, perhaps, to drive us out of 
the field. 

The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty. — There are persons who say that we 
are bound by treaty stipulations with the Government of Great 
Britain to refrain from carrying out this enterprise. This state- 
ment we do not believe. We recognize the fact that fifty years ago 
the United States and Great Britain entered into an alliance to secure 
the building of the Nicaragua Canal. Any person who dispassionately 



American History. 425 

studies carefully that treaty must come to the conclusion that the 
primary stipulations in the Clayton-Bulwer conventions looked to the 
immediate building of a canal under the influences that might be 
exerted by the two governments rather than to a prohibition of either 
to build it. Great Britain has allowed fifty years to elapse without 
any movement on her part to carry out the provisions of that article. 
It has been a dead letter from the day the treaty was signed to the 
present moment. 

This Nicaragua Canal can properly be described in other words 
by calling it the "short route to the East." And then properly para- 
phrasing the sentence, "Great Britain and the United States bound 
themselves not to secure us against the other, the short route to the 
East." In 1850 the Nicaragua route was the only "short route to 
the East" that any man had in his thoughts, and the spirit of the 
agreement was that Great Britain would not secure "the short route 
to the East" without the consent and co-operation of the United States. 

Violations by Great Britain. — But in violation of the spirit of 
the contract, Great Britain has, through her control over the Suez 
Canal, secured for herself "the short route to the East," one that is 
on her territory as completely for all practical purposes as though it 
was on the soil of Ireland; one that is completely under the control 
of her guns, at Gibraltar and the islands in the Mediterranean and 
on the Eed Sea, and yet we are blandly told that, notwithstanding 
the failure on her part to observe the letter of the seventh article of 
the treaty and the spirit of the first article, we are bound by a treaty 
of alliance entered into fifty years ago. 

The last fifty years has wrought a remarkable change in our 
relations to a waterway crossing the isthmus — 1850 was only four 
years removed from our first occupation of California. It was only 
four years later than the passage of the first party of emigrants from 
the Mississippi Kiver under the protection of a military force to Oregon. 
It was but two years after the cession of large landed interests on the 



426 Memorial Volume of 

Pacific Coast from Mexico. It was only three years after settlement 
of the disputed boundary of our northwest Pacific possessions. 

In 1850 not more than 10,000 inhabitants were on the Pacific 
Coast. Our coastwise trade with that coast was insignificant in value 
or amount. N"ow we have millions of citizens- living on the coast. 
We have hundreds of millions of commerce, we have thousands of 
millions of wealth. We have acquired Alaska, Hawaii, the Philippine 
Islands. There is no comparison between the meagre interests of fifty 
years ago and the colossal interests of to-day. The situation has so 
changed, the interests of our people now and then are so diverse, the 
necessity of responding to these changed conditions are so overwhelm- 
ing that the most censorious of those who lead in the formation of 
the world's judgment would say that our present action must be in 
harmony with these new conditions rather than with the old. There 
is a law of self-preservation that should control the action of com- 
munities no less than of individuals. 

Every Treaty May Be Repealed. — Irrepealable statutes are not 
tolerated. Even the most solemnly enacted constitutions must give 
way to the demands of the later generations when it is found that 
their provisions are harmful to the public welfare. And we know of 
no other form of enactment, having sanctity above law and constitu- 
tion, that the overwhelming needs of the people may not with con- 
sistency and morality demand the repeal of. 

But we think it safe to say neither the United States nor Great 
Britain has continuously regarded the Clayton-Bulwer treaty as in 
force. In 18G8 the United States and Xicaragua exchanged ratifica- 
tions of a treaty of friendship, commerce, and navigation. The follow- 
ing is a part of the sixteenth article of that treaty: 

"The Eepublic of Xicaragua agrees that, should it become necessary 
at any time to employ military forces for the security and protection 
of persons and property passing over any of the routes aforesaid, it 
will employ the requisite force for that purpose; but upon failure to 



American History. 42T 

do this from any cause whatever the Government of the United States, 
with the consent or at the request of the government of Nicaragua, 
or the minister thereof at Washington, or of the competent, legally 
appointed loca] authorities, civil or military, may employ such force 
for this and for no other purpose; and when, in the opinion of the 
government of Nicaragua, the necessity ceases such force shall be 
immediately withdrawn. 

"In the exceptional case, however, of unforeseen or imminent 
danger to the lives or property of citizens of the United States the 
forces of said republic are authorized to act for their protection with- [ 
out such consent having been previously obtained." 

The last quoted paragraph above gives to the United States 
the right to send its forces into Nicaragua to defend the citizens of 
the United States and their property, the property in contemplation 
being the Nicaragua Canal. The use of a military force always implies 
the right to establish fortifications for defensive purposes. 

Evidences of Treaty Abrogation. — Now it is possible that the 
United States would at that early day — only seventeen years after 
the negotiation of the Clayton-Bulwer convention — have secured from 
Nicaragua the right thus to use her military forces if the authorities 
had not believed that the Clayton-Bulwer treaty was abrogated. But 
again, at an earlier period — in 1860 — Great Britain herself concluded 
a treaty with the State of Nicaragua, in which there was an Article XVI 
above quoted. This was eight years before our treaty with Nicaragua. 
Will it be contended that Great Britatn had the right to secure from 
Nicaragua an agreement that she might enter with ber military forces 
the territory of Nicaragua, and use her military forces for the defence 
of her people and her property, including the right to build such fortifi- 
cations as might be needed for her military forces and yet the pro- 
visions of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty be in force ? 

It is doubtless true that in 1850 Great Britain and the United 
States contemplated the speedy completion of a Nicaragua Canal. 



428 Memorial Volume of 

They proposed to have joint interests by joint contributions to it. 
But the possibilities of a Suez Canal, that followed years after 1850 
dawned upon the maritime world, changed the interests of Great 
Britain. She no longer desired the Nicaragua Canal for her own 
uses. She directed her conduct with reference to the new conditions, 
yet still uses this ghost of a dead treaty to frighten the people of the 
United States from securing the great advantages certain to flow to us 
from the successful completion of this great undertaking. 



The National Cabinet 

Birth, Education and Qualificatiotis 
of the 

PRESIDENTS OFFICIAL FAMILY 



Biographic View 

of the distinguished Jurists and Statesmen comprising the 
Advisory Counselors of the Chief Executive, and to whose 
keeping has been entrusted the Department management 
of the 

Country's Home and Foreign Affairs 



429 



THE CABINET 



430 



I 



CABINET OFFICERS. 

HAY, JOHN.— Born in Salem, Ind., October 8, 1838. Received 
his early education in Warsaw, 111., and at the academy in Springfield, 
111. Graduated at Brown University in 1858. Studied law in Spring- 
field, 111., and admitted to practice before the Illinois courts in 1861, 
but was immediately called to Washington by President Lincoln to 
serve as one of his assistant secretaries. 

Field Duty. — During his service in this capacity, which really 
ended only with Lincoln's death, he performed much active duty in 
the field, serving as an adjutant and aide-de-camp to Generals Hunter 
and Gillmore, and receiving the rank of brevet colonel of United States 
Volunteers. On March 22, 1865, he was appointed Secretary of Lega- 
tion to France, which position he retained until March 18, 1867, when 
he retired. 

As Secretary of Legation. — On May 20, 1867, he was appointed 
Secretary of Legation to Austria-Hungary, where he acted in the 
capacity of charge d'affaires until August 12, 1868. On June 29, 
1869, he was appointed Secretary of Legation to Spain, which office 
he retained until he retired on October 1, 1870. 

As Editor. — On his retiracy he moved to Xew York, where he 
served for five years on the editorial staff of the Tribune, and for 
seven months of the time was editor-in-chief of that journal. In 1874 
he married Miss Clara Stone, of Cleveland, Ohio, and in 1875 removed 
to Cleveland to reside. Here he carried on his literary work, and took 
an active part as a Eepiiblican in political affairs, particularly in the 
campaigns of 1876, 1880 and 1884. 

Assistant Secretary of State. — On November 1, 1879, he was 
appointed Assistant Secretary of State by President Hayes, in which 
capacity he served until his retiracy. May 3, 1881. In 1881 he repre- 

(431) 



432 Memorial Volume of 

sented the United States at the International Sanitary Congress in 
Washington, of which he was the president. 

As Author. — He now for some years devoted himself largely to 
literary work, and became author of a number of excellent volumes, 
among which was the 'TLiife of Abraham Lincoln," written in conjunc- 
tion with John G. Nicolay. He had previously published several 
works, among which were "Castilian Days," "Pike County Ballads," 
and a translation of Castelar's "'Democracy in Europe." 

Ambassador. — On March 19, 1897, he was appointed by President 
]\rel\inley Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Great 
Britain, which position he filled with rare ability and satisfaction until 
his retiracy, September 19, 1898. On the next day, September 20, he 
was appointed by President McKinley to be Secretary of State, to suc- 
ceed the Hon. John Sherman, who retired on account of age. 

Secretary of State. — In his capacity as Secretary of State, Mr. 
Hay has been singularly fortunate in handling the many delicate 
questions growing out of the Spanish ^Yar, Chinese affairs, new terri- 
torial acquisitions, and the industrial and commercial attitude of the 
United States toward other nations. He came into his office thor- 
oughly equipped by his former long diplomatic experience, and struck 
a time in the history of American affairs during which his services 
were of immense practical value to the administration with which 
he co-operated, and to the country at large. In Chinese matters he 
secured the pledges of the various European powers to maintain the 
treaty rights of the United States in China, if such a thing as parti- 
tion of the country took place ; and in any and every controversy, and 
in all relations, with foreign countries, he maintained harmou}" and 
increased national respect. 

GAGE, LYMAN J.— Born June 28, 1836, in the town of De 
Euyter, Madison County, X. Y. Received his primary education in the 
schools of Ms native county; but, in, 1848, his parents removed to 



American History. 133 

Eome, jST. Y., where the son received the advantages of further educa- 
tion at the Eome Academy. His school career ended at the early age of 
seventeen years, when he gave way to his business desires, and entered 
the Oneida Central Bank in the humble capacity of office boy, followed 
in due course of time by promotions through some of the junior 
clerkships. 

Moves to the West.— The life did not suit his ambitions, and in 
1855 he went to Chicago to better his fortune. x\fter many trials inci- 
dent to the life of an unknown youth amid strange surroundings, he 
obtained a position as clerk in a planing mill. Here he had time to 
look about him for further opportunity, and in 1858 he secured a book- 
keeper's position in the Merchants' Loan and Trust Company of Chi- 
cago. He had seemingly struck a congenial atmosphere and propitious 
enviromnent, for his promotion was rapid, and his development com- 
prehensive. By 1861 he had reached the position of cashier, and 
retained it till 1868, growing all the time in the confidence of the 
institution and manifesting that grasp of financial conditions which 
was afterwards to place him in high position in the government service. 

As Bank Cashier. — The Merchants' Loan and Trust Company 
was a State institution. Young Gage believed that the national bank- 
ing system was superior to that of a state, and, in 1868, he accepted 
the appointment of cashier of the First Xational Bank of Chicago. 
This opened to him the opportunity for which he longed. 

As Bank Vice-President. — The charter of the bank having 
expired, it was reorganized and rechartered in 1882, with a capital 
increased to $3,000,000, and with Mr. Gage promoted to the position 
of vice-president and general manager. 

Bank President.^n 1891 he was chosen president of the bank, 
in which position he became an influential factor in the financial world 
and his bank one of the strongest institutions of the country. 

Secretary of Treasury. — During his financial career Mr. Gage 
had been singularly free from political affiliations. He never held 

23 



434 Memorial Volume of 

nor coveted public office, though often solicited to do so. This solici- 
tation became especially urgent at times in connection with the mayor- 
alty of Chicago, His breadth of views on finance, his great success in 
the banking world, the confidence reposed in him by business associ- 
ates throughout the country, led President McKinley to choose him 
for the high position of Secretary of the Treasury. He was appointed 
on March 4, 1897, and confirmed by the Senate, March 5, 1897. Hav- 
ing previously, February 15, 1897, resigned the presidency of his own 
bank, he entered upon the duties of the United States Treasury 
Department immediately on his confirmation. 

Success as Treasury Official. — During his growing career he 
served as president of the Board of Directors of the World's Columbian 
Exposition, president of the American Bankers' Association, and 
president of the Civic Federation of Chicago. During his official 
career at Washington he wrought many beneficial changes in the man- 
agement of the Treasury Department, and gave stout support to the 
administration in the bringing about of regulations and measures look- 
ing to the placing of the national currency on a gold standard and to 
the refunding of the national debt at lower rates of interest. At no 
time has the credit of the country been higher and the national treas- 
ury in closer touch with the people than under the management of 
Mr. Gage. 

ROOT, ELIHU.— Born in Clinton, Oneida County, N. Y., Feb- 
ruary 15, 1845. His early education was obtained in the schools, 
public and academic, of his native town, and in 1864 he graduated 
from Hamilton College, where his father, Oren Eoot, M^as for many 
years professor of mathematics. 

Admission to Bar. — After graduation he taught school at the 
Eome Academy. This was in 1865. He then entered the University 
Law School of the City of New York, whence he graduated in 1867, 
and was admitted to the bar, since which he has been in active practice 
in the City of New York. 



American History. 435 

As United States Attorney. — In March, 1883, he was appointed 
by President Arthur United States Attorney for the Southern Dis- 
trict of Xqw York, and served with distinction in that capacity until 
July, 1885. He was a delegate at large to the State Constitu- 
tional Convention of 1894, and served as chairman of the Judiciary 
Committee, a position which did much to bring him renown as a jurist 
of great learning and sound judgment. Though in no sense a poli- 
tician, he rose to high place in the councils of the Eepublican party, 
and grew to attract national attention. 

Situation in War Department. — When Secretary of War Alger 
resigned the war portfolio in 1899 the situation was a complicated 
one. The affairs of the department had become confused, requiring 
a legal mind to straighten them out. Moreover, the situation in Cuba, 
Porto Eico and the Philippines was such as to require a management 
of the War Department by one familiar with the problems of law that 
required solution. 

As Secretary of War. — It was in such an emergency that Presi- 
dent McKinley turned to Mr. Eoot as the man best fitted to repre- 
sent the war branch of the government. He was appointed Secretary 
of War August 1, 1899, and reappointed March 5, 1901. With his 
appointment attacks upon the management of the department ceased, 
and he proceeded with singular industry and tact to rearrange it so 
that it would run smoothly and effectively. In his methods he thor- 
oughly represented the administration, and secured the confidence and 
respect of the field and staff officials. 

KNOX, PHILANDER CHASE.— Born in Pittsburg, Pa., in 1842. 
Eeceivcd preliminary education in the public and academic schools 
of the city, and entered Mt. Union College, Ohio, whence he graduated 
in 1872. He then studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1875. 

As United States District Attorney. — He served as United 
States District Attorney for one year, and then resigned in order to 



436 Memoeial Volume of 

devote himself more exclusively to his practice. By the industry he 
used and the ready talents at command he rose speedily to distinction 
in his profession, and found in it a source of large income. . 

A Leading Lawyer. — While he comhined all the qualifications of 
a great general lawyer, he became an admitted leader in corporation 
law, and was chosen to represent many of the industrial and financial 
organizations of his end of the State and elsewhere. 

Civic and Social Life. — In 1897 he was elected president of the 
Bar Association of Pennsylvania. He is a member of the Lawyers' 
Club of Philadelphia and of the Lawyers' Club of New York. For 
three years he served in the honorable position of president of the 
Duquesne Club, and is a distinguished member of the American and 
many other Pittsburg clubs, and of the Union League of New York. 

Chosen Attorney-General. — His ability and prominence attracted 
President McKinley's notice, and his probity and general grasp of 
national law and of administrative questions recommended him for 
the place made vacant by the resignation of Attorney-General Griggs. 
Accordingly, the President tendered him the office of Attorney-Gen- 
eral, which he hesitated to accept for a long time, on account of the 
sacrifice it would occasion of his professional business. But after 
urgent solicitation he yielded, and in IMareh, 1901, accepted the place 
and became a member of the President's political and administrative 
family. 

Ability as Adviser. — In the brief period of his service before 
the President's lamented death, he ably met all the requirements of 
the place, and proved to be one of the strongest and safest of the Presi- 
dent's advisers. 

SMITH, CHARLES EMORY.— Born in Mansfield, Conn., Feb- 
ruary 18, 1842. Removed when young with his parents to Albany, 
N. Y. Educated at Albany Academy and at Union College, Schenec- 
tady, N. Y., where he graduated in 1861. 



American History, 437 

In the Civil War.— During the Civil War he acted as aid to 

General Eathbone, under the war governor, Morgan, in raising and 
organizing volunteer regiments. 

As Editor. — In 1865 he became editor of the Albany Express, 
which position he filled with ability until 1870, when he became joint 
editor of the Albany Evening Journal. He continued this connection 
with daily growing influence and professional aptitude until 1877, 
when he became sole editor, and a growing power in political circles. 

In Politics. — In 1876 he was chosen as a delegate to the Repub- 
lican National Convention, and served as secretary of the Platform 
Committee. Two years afterwards, in 1878^ he was elected regent 
of the State University by the Legislature of New York. For several 
years in succession he was sent as a delegate to Republican State Con- 
ventions in New York, and on account of his prominence and aptitude 
for such work he was invariably made chairman of committees on 
resolutions, and consequent author of the platforms. 

Editor of "Press". — In 1880 he moved to Philadelphia to assume 
the editorship of the Philadelphia Press. To this position he brought 
a thorough equipment, not only as a writer, but as one in intimate 
touch with modern journalism. The paper was reorganized through- 
out, and, on account of its editorial strength and general enterprise, 
soon became a leader in the news literature, and a powerful, though 
conservative, political factor in the State. 

As Orator. — During this period of his life Mr. Smith came to 
be recognized as one of the most effective orators of his city, and 
proved to be equally ready on political stump or civic platform. He 
took a particularly active and brilliant part in the campaign of 1888, 
which resulted in the election of President Harrison. 

Minister to Russia. — In 1890 he was appointed Minister to 
Russia by President Harrison, and during the two years which he 
retained this position he was active in the relief work of the great 
Russian famine of 1891-92, and had charge of the American con- 



438 Memorial YoLinyrE of 

tribution of over $100,000 in money and five shiploads of food, all of 
which he distributed to the satisfaction of his own government and 
that of Russia. 

Again Editor. — On his return from Eussia, Mr. Smith resumed 
his editorial work on the Press, interspersing his labors with public 
addresses and literar}- monographs. Under his able direction the 
journal had extended success and became even more an exponent of the 
higher and purer political thought of the State and nation. 

Postmaster-General.— On April 21, 1898, President McKinley 
tendered him the position of Postmaster-General, and sent his name 
to the Senate. The nomination was immediately confirmed, and he 
entered upon the duties of his office. His regime has been distin- 
guished by an extension of the free rural delivery system, and by a 
great battle for an increase of postal rates on matter whose carriage 
the government cannot afford under existing laws and regulations. 

LONG, JOHN DAVIS.— Born in Buckfield, Oxford Count}^, Me., 
October 27, 1838. Eeceived his preparatory education in the common 
school of his native town and the Hebron Academy, Maine. Was 
graduated from Harvard in 1857. Taught school two years in West- 
ford Academy, Massachusetts. 

Enters the Bar. — Studied law at Harvard Law School and in 
private offices. Was admitted to the bar, and has since practiced. Was 
a member of the Massachusetts Legislature in 1875, 1876, 1877 and 
1878. Was Speaker of the House during the last three years. 

Governor.— Was Lieutenant-Governor of his State in 1879 and 
Governor in 1880, 1881 and 1883. 

In Congress. — Was elected to the Forty-eighth and re-elected to 
the Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Congresses. Was for several years on the 
Statehouse Construction Commission of his State. Is senior member 
of the law firm of Long & Hemenway. Was appointed and confirmed 
Secretary of the 'Ka.vj, March 6, 1897. 



American History. 439 

HITCHCOCK, ETHAN ALLEN.— A great-grandson of Ethan 
Allen, of Vermont. Was born in Mobile, Ala., September 19, 1835; 
lived a year at New Orleans, and then removed to Nashville, Tenn., 
where he attended private schools, completing his course of study in 
1855 at the military academy in New Haven, Conn. 

In Mercantile Business. — Eejoining his family, who were then 
living at St. Louis, Mo., he engaged in mercantile business until 1860, 
when he went to Chicago to enter the commission house of Olyphant 
& Co., of which firm he was made a partner in 1866. Retired from 
business in 1872, and spent a couple of 5^ears in Europe. 

Minister to Russia. — Eeturning to the United States in 1874, 
was engaged as president of several manufacturing, mining, and rail- 
way companies, until he was appointed, August 16, 1897, Envoy 
Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Russia. Reached his 
post in December of that year, and on February 11, 1898, was made 
Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at St. 
Petersburg, where he discharged the duties of his office as the first 
American Ambassador accredited to the Russian Court, until he 
left for home to assume, on February 20, 1899, the duties of Secretary 
of the Interior, for which office he was nominated by the President 
and confirmed by the Senate on the same day, December 21, 1898. 

WILSON, JAMES.— Born in Ayrshire, Scotland, August 16, 1835. 
In 1852 he came to the United States, settling in Connecticut with his 
parents. In 1855 he went to Iowa, locating in Tama County, where, 
as early as 1861, he engaged in farming. Was elected to the State 
Legislature, and served in the Twelfth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth 
General Assemblies, being Speaker of the House in the last-mentioned 
assembly. 

In Congress.— Was elected to Congress in 1872, and served in 
the Forty-third, Forty-fourth and Forty-eighth Congresses; in the 
interim between the Fortv-fourth and Forty-eighth Congresses served 



440 Memorial Volume. 

as a member of the Eailway Commission; from 1870 to 1874 was a 
regent of the State University, and for the six years previous to becom- 
ing Secretary of Agriculture was director of the x4.gricultural Experi- 
ment Station and professor of agriculture at the Iowa Agricultural 
College at Ames. Was confirmed Secretary of Agriculture March 5, 
1897. 



Men of National Mark 



Biographic Sketches of American 
Characters Eminent In 



Civic and Official Life 



Men who have impressed themselves on our institutions. The 
great leaders of thought and action. Heroes distinguished 
for achievement on land and sea. Governors and 
administrative men, to whom have been com- 
mitted the destinies of our new island 
possessions, and the American 
policy of colonization. 



(441) 



MEN OF MARK 



(442) 



MEN OF MARK. 

TAFT, WILLIAM H.— William H. Taft, of Cincinnati, Ohio, 
head of Philippine Civil Government, is the son of the late Alphonso 
Taft, who served from 1865 to 1871 as judge of the Superior Court 
of that city. United States Attorney-General, under President Grant, 
and afterwards as Minister Plenipotentiary to Austria and to Russia. 

As Attorney. — Springing from a source so eminent in law and 
diplomacy, the son followed an inherited inclination toward the legal 
profession, and at an early period reached the distinction of a leading 
jurist in his city. 

As Judge. — Being of strong judicial turn, he was honored with 
the appointment of judge of the United States Court for the sixth 
judicial circuit, with residence at Cincinnati, in which capacity his 
great legal ability, sterling judgment and vigorous administrative 
capacity attracted executive attention to him as the proper person to 
entrust with the new and delicate duties connected with the institution 
of civil government in the Philippine Islands. 

Head of Philippine Commission. — Accordingly, on February 6, 
1900, President McKinley announced that he had selected a new 
commission, composed of five members, to proceed to the Philippines 
for the purpose of taking up the work of instituting a civil regime, 
of which commission Judge Taft had been made chairman. The 
other members were Professor Dean C. Worcester, of the University of 
Michigan; General Luke E. Wright, of Tennessee; Judge Henry C. 
Ide, of Vermont, and Professor Bernard Moses, of the University of 
California. The President was widely complimented for his selection 
of such an able and eminent body of men, and for officering it with a 
chairman who united so thoroughly the judicial turn with power of 
initiative. At the date of his appointment. Judge Taft was only 
about forty-five years of age, and therefore in that mental and physical 

(443) 



444 Memorial Volume oe 

prime demanded for his arduous and protracted task amid a strange 
people and exacting climate. He lias already inaugurated a satisfactory- 
civil government in many islands, and in time all will accept his 
administration. 

ALIEIT, CHARLES H.— First Governor of Porto Rico.— Born in 

Lowell, Mass., and after passing through the public schools, graduated 
at Amherst College in 1869. Though a good writer and speaker, he 
entered upon a manufacturing career. 

In Public Life. — While still a young man he served in many 
local offices, and then in the Massachusetts House in 1881 and 1882, 
then in the Massachusetts Senate in 1883, and in Congress for two 
terms. Against his will he was nominated for governor of Massachu- 
setts in 1891, against William E. Russell. 

Assistant Secretary of Navy. — He came to the Navy Depart- 
ment as assistant secretary in 1898, at the age of fifty-two, at a per- 
sonal sacrifice and as a patriotic duty. He at once greatly improved 
the work of the office and became the alter ego of the Secretary, per- 
forming his duties with satisfaction during his absence. No other 
official ever had more of the respect and regard of the navy than he. 

Governor of Porto Rico. — His discretion, firmness, courage, tact 
and unvarying courtesy, together with wonderful organizing and 
executive ability, were qualities which commended him to the Presi- 
dent as an ideal civic ruler of Porto Rico. He had already visited the 
island and studied its institutions and people. He entered upon the 
duties of governor at San Juan on May 1, 1900. The spirit of his 
incumbency is foreshadowed in remarks made at the time of his 
appointment. Said he: "My own inclination and my personal inter- 
ests urge me to decline the appointment; but one shoiild not always 
choose the easy way; there is a patriotic duty sometimes to be per- 
formed. My effort shall be to administer the government so as to 
command and hold the confidence of the people ; to help them to realize 



American History. 445 

the best there is in them, and to assist them in the development of the 
island along the lines which have made us a prosperous nation." 
Resigned, to take effect September 1, 1901, and was succeeded by 
Governor Hunt. 

MILES, NELSON A.— Born at Wachusettville, Mass., on August 
S, 1839, and educated in the schools of his native town. When the 
Civil War broke out he entered the volunteer service as captain of the 
Twenty-second Massachusetts Volunteers, September, 1861. Was 
made adjutant-general of a brigade for distinguished services at Fair 
Oaks and Malvern Hill. 

Colonel of Sixty-first New York Regiment. — On September 30, 
1862, he was appointed colonel of the Sixty-first ]S[ew York Volunteers, 
which regiment he gallantly commanded at the Battle of Fredericks- 
burg; he was severely wounded at the Battle of Chancellorsville. 

Major- General. — On May 12, 1864, he was promoted to be a 
brigadier-general, and further distinguished himself in the campaigns 
before Richmond. In August, 1864, he was promoted to brevet 
major-general and to full major-general of volunteers in October, 
1865. 

In Regular Army. — On July 28, 1866, he was made a colonel 
of the Fortieth Infantry in the regular army of the United States. 
On March 15, 1869, he was transferred to the Fifth United States 
Infantry, having been first commissioned a brevet brigadier, and then 
brevet major-general in the regular arm)'-, on March -2, 1867. He was 
promoted to be full brigadier in the United States army in December, 
1880, and to be a full major-general, April 5, 1890. 

In Indian Wars. — Ho commanded many military departments, 
and particularly distinguished himself m the suppression of Indian 
outbreaks. During the serious riots at Chicago, in July, 1894, he com- 
manded the United States troops sent to the scene. On October 5, 
1895, he assumed command of the army of the United States, with 



446 Memorial Volume of 

headquarters at Washington. Pending the surrender of the Spaniards 
at Santiago, he visited the scene and took part in the deliberations 
which led to capitulation. 

In Porto Rico. — He led the army which invaded the island of 
Porto Eico, and was fast reducing it to subjection when word came 
of the signing of the protocol, under whose terms hostilities were 
suspended. 

Lieutenant-General. — On June 8, 1900, he was commissioned 
by the President as lieutenant-general of the army, this honorary 
grade having been revived by the Military Academy Act of the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 

MacARTHTTR, MAJOR-GENERAL ARTHUR.— Born in the State 
of Massachusetts and received a liberal education. Entered the 
Civil War as a first lieutenant, and by 1865 had passed through the 
grades of lieutenant and brevet colonel of Twenty-fourth Wisconsin 
Regiment. 

In Regular Army. — On February 23, 1866, he entered the regular 
army as first lieutenant of the Seventeenth Infantry. On July 1, 1866, 
was promoted to captain of Thirty-sixth Infantry. On July 1, 1889, 
became major and assistant adjutant-general. On May 26, 1896, was 
promoted to lieutenant-colonel. On May 27, 1898, was appointed 
brigadier-general of United States Volunteers. Subsequently pro- 
moted to major-general of volunteers, and assigned to duty as com- 
mander of Second Division, Eighth Corps, 1898-99, in Havana, Cuba. 

In the Philippines. — After the Spanish-American War was pro- 
moted to brigadier-general in regular army, and assigned to duty 
(1899) as commander of the division of Philippine Islands. Remained 
in this command till relieved by the appointment of General Chaffee 
in the summer of 1901. During his service in the islands he carried 
on many active campaigns against the insurgent tribes, and suc- 
ceeded in crushing: out rebellion to isueh an extent as to admit of the 



American History. 447 

introcluction of civil government under Judge Taft, the head of the 
Philii^jiine Commission. 

HUNT, WILLIAM H.— Born in New Orleans, November 5, 1857. 
His father, William Henry Hunt, was Secretary of the Navy under 
Garfield and Arthur, and afterwards Minister to Eussia. 

A Montana Judge. — After graduating at Yale College, Mr. Hunt 
settled in Montana, and served as a member of the convention which 
drafted the constitution of the State in 1884. He was elected Judge of 
the district of Montana in 1889, and again in 1892. In 1894 he was 
elected judge of the Supreme Court of the State. 

Secretary of Porto Rico. — When Charles H. Allen was appointed 
governor of Porto Eico, Mr. Hunt was made secretary of the insular 
government, which position he held until the resignation of Governor 
Allen, to take effect September 1, 1901. 

Governor of Porto Rico. — In July, President McKinley named 
him as Allen's successor, and the succession took effect on Mr. Allen's 
retiracy. 

WOOD, LEONARD.— Born at Winchester, N. H., October 9, 1860. 
Graduated at Harvard Medical School, 1884. Appointed first-lieu- 
tenant and assistant surgeon in United States Army, January 5, 1886, 
and captain and surgeon January 5, 1891. 

Colonel of "Rough Riders." — Eecruited First United States 
Cavalry Eegiment of Volunteers ("Eough Eiders") for Spanish War, 
and became its colonel May 8, 1898. 

Brigadier General. — Promoted to brigadier general of volunteers 
July 8, 1898, for gallant service at San Juan Hill and Las Guasimas, 
and to major-general of volunteers December 9, 1899. 

Military Governor of Cuba.— December 13, 1899, assigned to 
command of Division of Cuba, relieving General Brooks as division 
commander and military governor of the island. He at once sum- 



448 Memorial Volume of 

moned a Cabinet of six natives of the island, and began those vigorous 
reforms which have made his name conspicuous. 

WHEELER, JOSEPH.— Joseph Wheeler was born in Augusta, 
Ga., September 10, 1836. He was the third of the name, his grand- 
father, Joseph Wheeler, being a direct descendant of Moses Wlieeler, 
one of the earl}^ settlers of ISTew England. He graduated at West 
Point, in 1859, as lieutenant of cavalry, and served in New Mexico. 

In Confederate Army. — Became lieutenant of artillery in the 
Confederate Army, and was successively promoted to the command 
of a regiment, brigade, division and army corps, and in 1862 was 
assigned to the command of the army corps of cavalry of the western 
army, which command he retained until the close of the war, becom- 
ing, in 1864, senior cavalry general of the Confederate armies. 

Congressional Career. — He was appointed Professor of Phil- 
osophy, Louisiana Seminary, in 1866, which he declined. He became 
a lawyer and planter, and was elected to the Forty-seventh, Forty- 
ninth, Fiftieth, Fifty-first, Fifty-second, Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth, 
Fifty-fifth and Fifty-sixth Congresses. 

In Spanish-American War. — When the Spanish-American War 
broke out General Wheeler was appointed by President McKinley 
major-general of volunteers, his commission dating May 4, 1898, and 
he was assigned to command the cavalry division of the army at San- 
tiago. On June 24, with 900 men, he fought and defeated Lieutenant- 
General Linares at Las Guasimas, Cuba, with over 2,000 regular 
Spanish troops. At the Battle of San Juan, July 1 and 2, he was 
senior officer in immediate command, and was senior member of com- 
mission which negotiated the surrender of Santiago. August 18 he 
was assigned to the command of the United States forces at Mon- 
tauk, L. I., and on October 5 was assigned to the command of the 
Fourth Army Corps. 



American History. 449 

In the Philippines. — He was honorably mustered out as major- 
general, and was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers April 12, 
1809, and on August 31 was placed in command of the First Brigade, 
Second Division, Eighth Corps, in the Philippines. Was engaged with 
enemy at Santa Rita, September 9, and also on September 16, in the 
capture of Porac, September 28, and the various engagements with 
the enemy at Angeles, October 10 to 17 inclusive. He returned to the 
United States in February, 1900, after the insurrection was practi- 
cally subdued. 

LEE, FITZHUGH.— Born at Clermont, Fairfax County, Va., 
ISTovember 19, 1835. Graduated at West Point Military Academy, 
1856. Served as second lieutenant of Second Cavalry, and wounded 
in frontier Indian War. Cavalry instructor at West Point, 1860-61. 

In Confederate Service. — Entered Confederate service and served 
as adjutant-general under Ewell, and then as colonel of First Virginia 
Cavahy. participating in all the battles of 1861-62, fought by tbe 
Army of Northern Virginia. Promoted to brigadier-general, 1862 ; 
and to major-general, 1863. 

Cavalry Commander. — In 1865 commanded the entire cavalry 
service of the Army of Northern Virginia, until its surrender to Gen- 
eral Meade. Elected governor of Virginia for the term 1886-90. 

In Spanish-American War. — In 1893, appointed Consul to 
Havana, where he served until breaking out of Spanish- American 
War, 1898, when he was commissioned a major-general of United 
States Volunteers and placed in command of an army corps. After 
the war he was made Military Governor of Havana, and was active 
and influential in restoring order and reconciling Cubans to their 
neM" conditions. Subsequently he was assigned to duty in the United 
States Army as Commander of the Department of Missouri. 

SCHLEY, WINFIELD SCOTT.— Born at Frederick, Md., 1839. 
Graduated at Naval Academy, 1860. On duty on frigate "Niagara,"' 



450 Memorial Volume of 

in Chinese waters, 1860-61. Promoted to master, 1861, and to lieu- 
tenant, July 16, 1862. 

Service During Civil War. — Served during the Civil War in 
West Gulf Blockading Squadron, and participated in the engagements 
leading to the capture of Port Hudson in 1863. Remained in South- 
ern waters until 1866, when transferred to Pacific Coast for active 
duty. 

At Naval Academy. — Made lieutenant-commander, 1866, and 
transferred for duty to Naval Academy. In active service in Eastern 
waters, 1869-71, in which last year he participated in a successful 
attack by American marines upon the Korean forts on Salee River. 

Rescues Greely. — In 1872, Professor of Modern Languages at 
Annapolis. Promoted to commodore, 1874, and in same year com- 
manded the ''Relief Expedition" which rescued Lieutenant Greely 
and his command from their ice imprisonment at Cape Sabine. After 
service in various capacities, promoted to captain, March 31, 1888. 
Commanded the "Baltimore" during Chilean troubles, 1891. 

In Spanish-AmMfican War. — Promoted to commodore, February, 
1898, and placed in command of Flying Squadron operating against 
Cuba. In command of the "Brooklyn" during the capture and destruc- 
tion of Cervera's fleet, July 3, 1898, and fairly divided the honors of 
the occasion with other commanding officers. August, 1898, promoted 
to rear-admiral, and served further as commander of South Atlantic 
Squadron. 

SAMPSON, WILLIAM THOMAS.— Born in Palmyra, N. Y., Feb- 
ruary 9, 1840. Appointed to navy, September 24, 1857. Graduated 
with first honors at ISTaval Academ}', Annapolis, in 1861, and promoted 
to master. Commissioned lieutenant, July 16, 1862 

Rescue From Drowning. — Executive officer of the ironclad 
"Patapsco" when it was blown up in Charleston harbor, and was res- 
cued from the water into which he was blown. Commissioned lieuten- 



American History. 451 

ant-commander, July 25, 1866; and commander, August 9, 1874. 
Promoted to captain, March, 1889. 

Superintendent of Naval Academy.— Superintendent of Naval 
Academy, 1886-90. In conjunction with Lieutenant Joseph Strauss 
invented the superimposed turrets adopted by the navy. February, 
1898, president of board appointed to inquire into the cause of destruc- 
tion of the United States battleship "Maine," in Havana harbor, Feb- 
ruary 15. 

Appointed Commander. — Upon declaration of war with Spain 
(1898), appointed commander of North Atlantic Squadron with rank 
of acting rear-admiral, and in same year promoted to be commodore. 
In 1899, promoted to be rear-admiral. 

Commanding Atlantic Fleet. — During the SjDanish War he com- 
manded the entire Atlantic fleet comprising 125 vessels of all classes. 
That part of his fleet operating against Cuba, and especially at Santi- 
ago, destroyed the Spanish fleet, under Cervera, on its attempt to 
escape from Santiago harbor, July 3, 1898. Eesumed command of the 
North Atlantic fleet, December, 1898. October ^, 1899, appointed to 
command of Boston Navy Yard. 

CLEVELAND, GROVER.— Born in Caldwell, Essex County, 
N. J., March 18, 1837. Eeceived an academic education, and moved to 
Buffalo, N. Y., in 1855, where he studied law and was admitted to the 
bar in 1859. 

Assistant District Attorney. — Assistant District Attorney of Erie 
County, 1863-66. Sheriff of the county, 1870-73. Mayor of Buffalo, 
1881. The strength and economy of his administration brought him 
conspicuously before the people of New York State. 

Governor of New York. — In 1883 he was elected governor, on. 
the Democratic ticket, in which capacity he added largely to his repu- 
tation as a sterling official. 



452 Memorial Volume or 

President of United States. — Nominated for and elected Presi- 
dent of the United States in 1884, over James G. Blaine, by a majority 
of 37 in the electoral college. In 1888 he was again the Democratic 
candidate for President, but was defeated by Benjamin Harrison, the 
Eepublican candidate. Eeturned to his law practice in the city of 
New York. 

Again President. — In 1892 was again elected to the Presidency 
over President Harrison. During his second administration, his 
party swung away from his policy of a gold standard and adopted tho 
doctrine of free silver coinage, leaving Mr. Cleveland to represent only 
that minority branch of his party, which became known in the cam- 
paign of 1896 as "Gold Democrats." 

In Private Life. — On retiring from office, March 3, 1897, Mr, 
Cleveland toolv up his residence in Princeton, N. J., and devoted him- 
self to the quiet life of a publicist and civilian. 

HILL, DAVID B.— Born in Havana, N. Y., August 29, 1843. 
Moved to Elmira in 1862. Eeceived a liberal education and was 
admitted to the bar in 1864. Began practice of the law and soon 
occupied a high legal standing. 

In Public Life. — Was elected to the New York Assembly and 
served for the term 1871-72. Was president of the Democratic State 
Conventions of 1877 and 1881. Elected an alderman of Elmira in 
1880, and mayor in 1882. Elected lieutenant-governor of the State 
and served the term of 1882-85. 

Governor and Senator. — Elected governor of the State for the 
terms 1885-91, and to the United States Senate for the term 1891-97. 
j\[r. Hill was a conspicuous candidate for the Presidential candidacy 
of his party in the Democratic National Convention of 1892. In the 
National Convention of 1896, he led the sound money forces of his 
party against the various free-silver and Populistic combinations, but 
was overwhelmed by the stampede for Bryan. He was even stronger 



American History. 453 

in the councils of his party during the convention period of 1900, 

but was again overruled by the free-silver-coinage sentiment. 
Since his Senatorship he has carried on his law business with success, 
at the same time keeping abreast of that sentiment in his party which 
seeks its reorganization on traditional lines, and opposes hazardous and 
belittling coalitions. 

LOW, SETH.— Born in Brooklyn, N. Y., January 18, 1850. 
Received his earlier education in the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, 
and graduated from Columbia College in 1870. Has been honored 
with the degree of LL. D. by the University of the State of ISTcw York, 
Amherst College, University of Pennsylvania, Harvard and Prince- 
ton universities. At first entered upon a business career as a clerk, 
and afterwards as a partner, in the tea-importing house of his father. 

In Public Life. — The independent forces of Brooklyn made him 
their candidate for the mayoralty, and elected him for the term of 
1881-85, during which time he gave an administration which did 
much to purify the city and bring about much needed reforms. His 
independence and administrative success gave him great prominence 
in New York political circles, and after the consolidation of the city 
he was chosen the anti-Tammany candidate for mayor. But the coali- 
tion of forces in his favor was imperfect, and he suffered defeat. 

University President. — On the removal, rebuilding and new 
organization of the Columbia University he was chosen its president, 
and through his agency the institution has come to occupy the high 
plane desired by all its patrons. He is president and active worker in 
many literary and scientific societies, and an influential force in social 
life. In September, 1901, he was nominated as candidate for mayor 
of the Greater New York, by a coalition of all the anti-Tammany 
forces, this time having also the support of the Republican party, which 
he lacked in his former campaign. 



454: Memorial Volume. 

BRYAN, WILLIAM JENNINGS.— Bora at Salem, 111., March 10, 
I860. Educated at "Whipple Academy, Jacksonville, 111., and Illinois 
College, where he graduated in 1881. Studied law at Union Law Col- 
lege, Chicago, and admitted to bar in 1883. In 1887, moved to Lin- 
coln, Neb., and opened law office. Soon entered upon his political 
career, and became noted as an eloquent campaigner. 

In Congress. — Elected to Congress in 1890, b}- nearly seven thou- 
sand majority. Though the 3'oungest member of the Lower House, 
he was assigned a place on the Committee of Ways and Means, and 
soon showed a mastery of tariff reform matters, both in Committee 
and by his discussions on the floor. He stood for election in the Fifty- 
third Congress (1892) and was elected by a reduced majority. He 
now became leader of the free-silver forces. At the end of his term; 
he declined renomination and became editor of the World-Herald, 
Omaha. 

Presidential Nominee. — In the Democratic Xational Convention, 
of July, 1896, at Chicago, he led the "free-silver coinage" wing of his 
party, and at a time when the nomination was hanging fire, delivered 
an eloquent address to the convention, which turned sentiment so 
powerfully toward himself that he received the nomination for Presi- 
dent by a vote of 528 to 148. After a brilliant campaign, he was 
defeated by ^IcKinley, the Eepublican candidate, by an electoral 
vote of 271 to 176. In 1898, became colonel of Third Nebraska Regi- 
ment, raised for the Spanish War. Again nominated for President by 
the Democratic, Populist and Silver parties in 1900, at Kansas City. 
Made an active traveling canvass as before, but was again defeated by 
a vote in the Electoral College of 292 to 155. Became weU known as 
a lecturer and author, and after his second defeat started the Com- 
moner newspaper at Lincoln, a weekly devoted to the measures he 
regards as paramount from both a party and national standpoint. 



The Nation's Law Makers 



LIVES OF THE MEMBERS OF THE SUPREME COURT, 

SENATORS, AND REPRESENTATIVES OF 

THE PRESENT CONGRESS 



An Encyclopedic Presentation 

of the Careers of Men of the Day, upon whom 

depends a solution of the present great 

problems of government 



Invaluable Reference 

For information respecting men of mark, and 
important political questions 



(465) 



THE NATION'S LAW MAKERS AND EXPOUNDERS 



(456) 



SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Melville Weston Fuller, Chief Justice of tlie United States, was 
born in Augusta, Me., February 11, 1833; was graduated from Bow- 
doin College in 1853 ; studied law, attended a course of lectures at 
Harvard Law School, and was admitted to the bar in 1855. Moved 
to Chicago, 111., in 1856, where he practiced law until appointed Chief 
Justice; in 1862 Avas a member of the State Constitutional Convention; 
was a member of the State Legislature from 1863 to 1865 ; was 
appointed Chief Justice April 30, 1888, confirmed July 20, 1888, and 
took the oath of office October 8, same year. 

John Marshall Harlan, Associate Justice of the United States 
Supreme Court, was born in Boyle County, Ky., June 1, 1833 ; was 
graduated from Center College, Kentucky, in 1850; studied law at 
Transylvania University; practiced his profession at Frankfort; 
removed to Louisville and formed a law partnership with Honorable 
W. F. Bullock; in 1861 raised the Tenth Kentucky Infantry Eegiment 
and served in General George H. Thomas' division; was elected 
attorney-general by the Union party in 1863 and filled the office until 
1867, when he returned to active practice in Louisville; served as a 
member of the Louisiana commission ; was commissioned an Associate 
Justice of the United States Supreme Court November 29, 1877, and 
took his seat December 10, same year. 

Horace Gray, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the 
United States, was born in Boston, Mass., March 24, 1828; graduated 
from Harvard College in the Class of 1845 and from the Harvard 
Law School in 1849 ; was admitted to the bar in 1851 ; was appointed 
reporter of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in 1854 and 
held the position until 1861 ; was appointed Associate Justice of the 
Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts August 23, 1864, and Chief 
Justice of that Court September 5, 1873 ; was commissioned an Asso- 
ciate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States by President 
Arthur December 19, 1881. 

(457) 



458 Memorial Volume of 

David Josiah Brewer, Associate Justice of the United States 
Supreme Court, was born in Smyrna, Asia Minor, June 20, 1837 ; grad- 
uated from Yale College in 1856 and from the Albany Law School in 
1858; established himself in his profession at Leavenworth, Kan., 
in 1859; from 1862 to 1865 was judge of the probate and criminal 
courts of Leavenworth County; from 1865 to 1869 was judge of the 
district court; from 1869 to 1870 was county attorney of Leaven- 
worth; in 1870 was elected a justice of the Supreme Court of his 
State, and re-elected in 1876 and 1882 ; in 1884 was appointed judge of 
the Circuit Court of the United States for the eighth district; was 
appointed to his present position, to succeed Justice Stanley Matthews, 
deceased, in December, 1889, and was commissioned December 18, 
1889. 

Henry Billing-s Brown, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court 
of the United States, was born in South Lee, Mass., March 2, 1836; 
graduated from Yale College in 1856 ; admitted to the bar of Wayne 
County, Mich., in July, 1860; in the spring of 1861 was appointed 
Deputy Marshal of the United States, and subsequently Assistant 
United States Attorney for the eastern district of Michigan ; appointed 
judge of the State Circuit Court of Wayne County; appointed by 
President Grant District Judge for the eastern district of Michigan in 
1875; on December 23, 1890, was appointed Associate Justice of the 
Supreme Court, to succeed Justice Samuel F. Miller. 

George Shiras, Jr., Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the 
United States, was born in Pittsburg, Pa., January 26, 1832 ; was 
graduated from Yale College in 1853 ; attended the Yale Law School 
in 1854; was admitted to the bar of Pennsylvania in 1856; practiced 
law in Pennsylvania till his appointment to the Supreme Bench; 
received the degree of LL. D. from Yale University in 1883 ; was one 
of the Pennsylvania Presidential electors in 1888; in July, 1892, was 
appointed to succeed Justice Joseph P. Bradley; took the oath of 
office October 10, 1892. 

Edward Douglass White, Associate Justice of the Supreme 
Court of the United States, was born in the parish of Lafourche, La., 
in November, 1845; was educated at Mount St. Mary's, near Emmits- 
burg, Md., at the Jesuit College in New Orleans, and at Georgetown 



American History. 459 

(D. C.) College; served in the Confederate army; was licensed to 
practice law by the Supreme Court of Louisiana in December, 18G8; 
elected State Senator in 1874; was appointed Associate Justice of the 
Supreme Court of Louisiana in 1878; was elected to the United States 
Senate as a Democrat, and took his seat March 4, 1891 ; while serving 
his term as Senator from Louisiana was appointed, February 19, 
1894, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and took his seat 
March 13, 1894. 

Rufus W. Peckham, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of 
the United States, was born in the city of Albany and State of New 
York, November 8, 1838; educated at the Albany Academy; admitted 
to the bar of the State in December, 1859. Li 1868 he was elected 
district attorney of Albany County; was subsequently corporation 
counsel of Albany City, and in 1883 was elected a justice of the 
Supreme Court of the State. While serving as such he was elected, in 
1886, an associate judge of the Court of Appeals of New York State, 
and while occupying a seat on that bench he was, in December, 1895, 
appointed by President Cleveland an Associate Justice of the Supreme 
Court of the United States. 

Joseph McKenna, of San Francisco, Cal., Associate Justice of the 
Supreme Court of the L'nited States, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., 
August 10, 1843 ; attended St. Joseph's College of his native city until 
1855, when he removed with his parents to Benicia, Cal., where he con- 
tinued his education at the public schools and the Collegiate Institute, 
at which he studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1865; was twice 
elected district attorney for Solano County ; served in the Lower House 
of the Legislature in the sessions of 1875 and 1876 ; was elected to the 
Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, Fifty-first and Fifty-second Congresses; 
resigned from the last-named Congress to accept the position of United 
States Circuit Judge, to which he was appointed by President Harri- 
son in 1893 ; resigned that office to accept the place of Attorney-Gen- 
eral of the United States in the Cabinet of President I^fcKinley; was 
appointed, December 16, 1897, an Associate Justice of the Supreme 
Court of the T'''nited States to succeed Justice Field, retired, and took 
his seat January 26, 1898. 



460 Memokial Volume op 

FIFTY-SIXTH CONGRESS. 

ALABAMA SENATORS. 

John T. Morgan.— Born at Athens, Tenn., June 20, 1824:; 
received an academic education, chiefly in Alabama, to which State he 
emigrated when nine years old; studied law, was admitted to the bar 
in 1845; joined the Confederate army in May, 1861; in 1863 was 
appointed brigadier-general; after the war he resumed the practice 
of his profession at Selma; was elected to the United States Senate; 
took his seat March 5, 1877; was re-elected in 1882, in 1888, in 1894 
and 1900. 

Edmund Winston Pettus. — Born in Limestone County, 
Ala., July 6, 1821; educated at the common schools in Alabama and 
at Clinton College; admitted to the bar in 1842; in 1844 was elected 
solicitor for the seventh circuit ; served as a lieutenant in the ^Mexican 
"War; elected Judge of the seventh circuit of Alabama in 1855 ; in 1861 
went into the Confederate army ; in October, 1863, was made a briga- 
dier-general of infantry ; in November, 1896, was elected by the Legis- 
lature of Alabama United States Senator for the term commencing 
March 4, 1897. 

ALABAMA REPRESENTATIVES. 

George Washington Taylor, of First District, was born 
January 16, 1849, in Montgomery County, Ala. ; educated at the South 
Carolina University; admitted to practice at Mobile, Ala., November, 
1871 ; was elected to the Lower House of the General Assembly of Ala- 
bama in 1878; in 1880 was elected state solicitor for the first jud'icial 
circuit of Alabama, and was re-elected in 1886; elected to the Fifty- 
fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Jesse F. Stallings, of Second District, was born near the village 
of Manningham, Butler County, Ala., April 4, 1856 ; graduated from 
the University of Alabama in 1877; studied law at the Law School of 
the University of Alabama ; commenced the practice of law in Green- 



American Histoet. 461 

ville; elected by the Legislature of Alabama solicitor for the second 
judicial circuit in Xovember, 1886; was elected to the Fifty-third, 
Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 

Henry De Lamar Clayton, of Third District, was born in Barbour 
County, Ala., February 10, 185T; is a lawyer by profession; served one 
term in the Alabama Legislature; was a United States District Attor- 
ney from May, 1893, to October, 1896; elected to the Fifty-fifth Con- 
gress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

William F. Aldrich, Eepublican, of Fourth District, was born at 
Palmyra, Wayne County, X. Y., March 11, 1853; graduated from War- 
ren's Military Academy, at Poughkeepsie, X. Y. ; removed to Alabama 
in 187-i and engaged in mining and manufacturing; elected to the 
Fifty-fourth, Fifty-fifth and Fifty-sixth Congresses. 

Willis Brewer, Democrat, of Fifth District, is a native Alabamian ; 
in 18T1 was county treasurer of Lowndes; was state auditor from 
1876 to 1880; was state legislator from 1880 to 1882; State Senator 
from 1882 to 1890; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected 
to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

John H. Bankhead, Democrat, of Sixth District, was born in 
Moscow, Marion County (now Lamar), Ala., September 13, 18-12; 
was self-educated; represented Marion County in the General Assembly, 
sessions of 1865, 1866 and 1867; was a member of the State Senate 
1876-77, and of the House of Eepresentatives 1880-81; was elected 
to the Fiftieth, Fifty-first, Fifty-second, Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and 
Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Jolin Lawson Burnett, Democrat, of Seventh District, was born 
at Cedar Bluff, Cherokt'e County, Ala., January 20, 185-1; educated 
in the common schools of the county, at the Wesleyan Institute, Cave 
Springs, Ga., and Gaylesville High School, Gaylesville, Ala.; elected 
to the Lower House of the Alabama Legislature in 1884, and to the 
State Senate in 1886; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

William Richardson, Democrat, of Eighth District, is a native 
of Limestone County. Ala. ; a member of the bar of Huntsville. Al;i., 
since 1867; judge of the Court of Probate and County Court of 



462 Memorial Volume of 

Madison County, Ala. ; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress August 6, 
1900. 

Oscar W. Underwood, Democrat, of Xinth District, was born in 
Louisville, Jefferson County, Ky., May 6, 1862; educated at Rigby 
School, Louisville, Ky., and the University of Virginia; commenced 
the practice of law at Birmingham, x\la., September, 1884; elected to 
the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fift-- 
sixth Congress. 

ARKANSAS SENATORS. 

James H. Berry. Democrat, was born in Jackson County, Ala., 
September 2i), 1839; received a classical education; elected to the 
admitted to practice in 18GG ; was elected to the Legislature of Arkansas 
in 1866 ; re-elected in 1872 ; elected judge of the Circuit Court in 1878 ; 
elected governor in 1882 ; elected to the United State Senate, and took 
his seat March 25, 1885; re-elected in 1889 and 1895. 

James K. Jones, Democrat, was born in Marshall County, Miss., 
September 29, 1839; received a classical education; elected to the 
State Senate of Arkansas in 1873; re-elected under the new govern- 
ment, and in 1877 was elected president of the Senate; elected to the 
Forty-seventh Congress ; re-elected to the Forty-eighth and Forty-ninth 
Congresses; elected to the United States Senate, and took his seat 
March 4, 1885; was re-elected in 1890 and 1897. 

ARKANSAS REPRESENTATIVES. 

Philip Doddridge McCulloch, Democrat, of First District, was 
born in Murfreesboro, Tenn., June 23, 1851; educated at Andrew 
College; admitted to the bar in August, 1872; removed to Marianna, 
Ark., in February, 1874; elected to the office of prosecuting attorney 
of the first judicial district of the State in September, 1878; renomi- 
nated and elected three successive terms; elected to the Fifty-third, 
Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 

John Sebastian Little, Democrat, of Second District, was born 
at Jenny Lind, Sebastian County, Ark., March 15, 1893; educated 



American History. 463 

in the common schools and at Cane Hill College, Arkansas ; admitted 
to the bar in 1874; in 1877 elected district attorney for the twelfth 
circuit of Arkansas; re-elected for four successive terms; was elected 
a representative to the Legislature in 1884; in 1886 was elected 
circuit judge; in September, 1894, elected to Fifty-third Congress; 
elected to the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to 
the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Thomas Chipman McRae, Democrat, of Third District, was born 
at Mount Holly, Union County, Ark., December 21, 1851; graduated 
in law at the Washington and Lee University, Virginia, in class of 
1871-72; admitted to practice January 8, 1873; member of the State 
Legislature of Arkansas in 1877; elected to the Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, 
Fifty-first, Fifty-second, Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Con- 
gresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

William Leake Terry, Democrat, of Fourth District, was born 
in Anson Count}-, X. c.^ September 27, 1850 ; removed with his parents 
to Arkansas in 1861; admitted to Trinity College, North Carolina, in 
1869, and graduated in June, 1872; studied law and admitted 
to the bar in November, 1873; elected to the State Senate in Septem- 
ber, 1878; served eight terms as city attorney of Little Eock; elected 
to the Fifty-second, Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Con- 
and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Hugh Anderson Dinsmore, Democrat, of Fifth District, was born 
in Bentoni County, Ark., December 24, 1850; educated in private 
schools in Benton and Washington counties; studied law at Benton- 
ville; in September, 1878, elected prosecuting attorney of the fourth 
judicial district of Arkansas; was re-elected in 1880, and again with- 
out opposition in 1882; in January, 1887, was appointed Minister 
'Resident and Consul-General of the United States in the Kingdom 
of Korea ; was elected to the Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth 
Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Stephen Brundidge, Jr., Democrat, of Sixth District, was 
born in White County, Ark., January 1, 1857; educated in the pri- 
vate schools of the county, studied law at Searcy, and in 1878 was 
admitted to the bar; in September, 1886, was elected prosecuting 
attorney for the first judicial district of Arkansas, and re-elected in 



464 Memorial Volume of 

1888; was elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the 
Fifty-sixth Congress. 

CALIFORNIA SENATORS. 

George Clement Perkins, Republican, was born at Kennebunk- 
port, Me., in 1839; went to California in 1855 and engaged in mer- 
cantile pursuits; in 1868 was elected to the State Senate; in 1879 he 
was elected governor of California, serving until Januar}-, 1883 ; 
appointed, July 24, 1893, United States Senator. In January, 1895, 
having made a thorough canvass before the people of his State, he 
was elected by the Legislature on the first ballot to fill the unexpired 
term; re-elected in 1897. 

Thomas Robert Bard, Eepublican, was born in Chambersburg, 
Pa., December 8, 18-11; went to California in 1864; elected to the 
United States Senate at an extra session of the State Legislature, by 
unanimous vote of the Eepublican majority, to fill the vacancy occa- 
sioned by the expiration of the term of Stephen ]\I. White, Democrat, 
March 3, 1899, and took the oath of office in the Senate March 5, 1900. 

CALIFORNIA REPRESENTATIVES. 

John A. Barham, Eepublican, of First District, was born in 
Missouri July 17, 1844; removed with his parents to California in 
1849 ; educated" at the Hesperian College ; studied law and was admitted 
to practice in 1868 ; elected' to the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Con- 
gresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Samuel Davis Woods, Eepublican, of Second District, was born 
at ]\rount Pleasant, Maury County, Tenn., on September 19, 1845; 
reached California in February, 1850, was educated in the public 
schools, and admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of California 
in April, 1875 ; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress to fill the vacancy 
caused by the resignation of Marion De Vries. 

Victor Howard Metcalf, Eepublican, of Third District, was born 
in Utica, Oneida County, N. Y., October 10, 1853 ; entered the Yale 
Law School, graduated therefrom in 1876; was admitted to practice in 
the Supreme Court of Connecticut in June, 1876; practiced law in 



American History. 465 

Utiea, N". Y., for two years, and then moved to California ; was elected 
to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Julius Kahn, Republican, of Fourth District, was born at Kuppen- 
heim, Grand Duchy of Baden, on the 28th day of February, 1861; 
removed with his parents to California in 1866; was educated in the 
public schools of San Francisco. In January, 1894, was admitted to 
the bar by the Supreme Court of California, and was elected to the 
Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Eugene Francis Loud, Republican, of Fifth District, was born in 
Abington, Mass., March 13, 1847 ; at the age of thirteen went to sea and 
to California; member of California Legislature in 1884, and was 
elected to the Fifty-second, Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth, and Fifty-fifth 
Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Russell Judson Waters, Republican, of Sixth District, was born 
June 6, 1843, at Halifax, Vt. ; admitted to the bar in 1863; removed 
to Los Angeles, Cal., in 1894; was unanimously nominated for the 
Fifty-sixth Congress, and elected. 

James Carson Needham, Republican, of Seventh District, was 
born September 17, 1864, in Carson City, Nev.; took a collegiate 
course at the University of the Pacific at San Jose, graduating in the 
year 1886 ; began practice of law in November, 1889 ; was elected to the 
Fifty-sixth Congress. 

COLORADO SENATORS. 

Edward Oliver Wolcott, Republican, of Denver, was born in 
Longmeadow, Mass., March 26, 1848; graduated from Harvard Law 
School in 1871, and removed to Colorado; elected to the United States 
Senate, and took his seat March 4, 1889; was re-elected in 1895. 

Henry Moore Teller, Silver Republican, of Central City, was born 
in the town of Granger, Allegany County, N. Y., May 23, 1830; edu- 
cated at Alfred University; admitted to practice at Binghamton, 
N. Y. ; removed to Colorado and resumed the practice of law ; never 
held an office until he was elected to the United States Senate from 
Colorado on the admittance of that State ; took his seat in the United 
States Senate, December 4, 1876; was re-elected December 11 for the 

30 



466 Memorial Volume of 

full terra, and served until April 17, 1882, when he resigned to enter 
the Cabinet of President Arthur as Secretary of the Interior, and 
served until March 3, 1885; was re-elected to the Senate in 1885, 1891 
and 1897. 

COLORADO REPEESENTATIVES. 

John F. Shafroth, Silverite, of First District, was born in 
Fayette, Mo., June 9, 1854; admitted to the bar in August, 1876; 
removed to Denver, Colo. ; in April, 1887, was elected city attorney of 
Denver, and was re-elected to the same position in April, 1889 ; was 
elected to the Fifty-fourth Congress as a Republican, and re-elected 
to the Fifty-fifth and Fifty-sixth Congresses as a Silver Republican. 

John C. Bell, Populist, of Second District, was born in Grundy 
County, Tenn., December 11, 1851; read law in Winchester, Tenn. ; 
was admitted to the bar of that State in 1874, and the same year 
moved to Colorado ; was twice elected mayor of Lake City ; in Novem- 
ber, 1888, was elected judge of the seventh judicial district of Colo- 
rado ; was elected to the Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Con- 
gresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

CONNECTICUT SENATORS. 

Orville H. Piatt, Republican, of Meriden, was born at Washing- 
ton, Conn., July 19, 1827; received an academic education; studied 
law at Litchfield; admitted to the bar in 1849; Secretary of State of 
Connecticut in 1857; was a member of the State Senate in 1861-62; 
member of the State House of Representatives in 1864 and 1869; 
elected to the United States Senate took his seat March 18, 1879; 
was re-elected in 1885, 1890 and 1897. 

Joseph Roswell Hawley, Republican, of Hartford, was born at 
Stewartsville, Richmond County, N. C, October 31, 1826; graduated 
at Hamilton College, New York, in 1847; admitted to the bar in 1850 
at Hartford, Conn. ; became editor of the Hartford Evening Press in 
February, 1857; enlisted in the Union Army as a captain April 18, 
1861; became brigadier and brevet major-general; elected governor 
of Connecticut in April, 1866; president of the United States Cen- 



American History. 467 

teiiiiial Comi-nission ; was elected in November, 1872, a Representative 
in the lM:)i'ty-second Congress; re-elected to the Forty-third and 
Forty-sixth Congresses; elected to the United States Senate; took 
his seat March 4, 1881; was re-elected in 1887, 1893 and 1899. 

CONNECTICUT REPRESENTATIVES. 

E. Stevens Henry, Republican, of First District, was born in 
Gill, Mass., in 1836, removing when twelve years old with his parents 
to Rockville, Conn.; was educated in the public schools; Representa- 
tive in the Lower House of the Connecticut General Assembly of 1883 ; 
State Senator from the twenty-third senatorial district in 1887-88; 
treasurer of the State of Connecticut from 1889 to 1893; in 1894 
was elected to the Fifty-fourth Congress; elected to the Fifty-fifth 
and Fifty-sixth Congresses. 

Nehemiah Day Sperry, Republican, of Second District, was born 
in Woodbridge, New Haven County, Conn, July 10, 1827; received 
his education in the common schools; elected Secretary of State in 
1855 ; re-elected in 1856; nominated for Congress in 1894; was elected 
to the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-iifth Congresses, and re-elected to the 
Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Charles Addison Russell, Republican, of Third District, was born 
in Worcester, Mass., March 2, 1852; graduated from Yale College in 
the Class of 1873; member of the House, General Assembly of Connec- 
ticut, in 1883; Secretary of State of Connecticut, 1885-86; elected to 
the Fiftieth, Fifty-first, Fifty-second, Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and 
Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Ebenezer J. Hill, Republican, of Fourth District, was born in 
Redding, Conn., August 4, 1845 ; entered Yale with the Class of 1865, 
where he remained two years; member of the Connecticut Senate for 
1886-87 ; elected to the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and 
re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

DELAWARE SENATOR. 

Richard Rolland Kenney, Democrat, of Dov^r, was born in Sus- 
sex County, Del., September 9, 1856; graduated from Laurel Acad- 



468 Memorial Volume of 

emy, Delaware, June, IST-t; admitted to the bar October 19, 1881; 
was elected to the United States Senate January 19, 1897. 

DELAWARE REPRESENTATIVE. 

Walter Oakley Hoffecker, Eepublican, was born September 20, 
1854; entered Lehigh University, at Bethlehem, Pa.; studied civil 
engineering; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

FLORIDA SENATORS. 

Stephen Russell Mallory, Democrat, of Pensacola, was born 
November 2, 1848; entered Georgetown College, District of 
Columbia, November, 1865, and graduated in June, 1869; 
admitted to bar by the Supreme Court of Louisiana at New Orleans 
in 1873; removed to Pensacola, Fla., in 1874; elected to the Lower 
House of the Legislature in 1876; elected to the Senate of Florida in 
1880, and re-elected in 1884; elected to the Fifty-second and Fifty- 
third Congresses from the first district of Florida, and was elected 
to the United States Senate by the Legislature of Florida for the 
term beginning March 4, 1897. 

James Piper Taliaferro, Democrat, of Jacksonville, was born at 
Orange Court House, Va., September 30, 1847; educated in Vir- 
ginia ; removed later to Jacksonville, Fla. ; elected to the United States 
Senate April 19, 1899, to succeed Hon. Samuel Pasco. 

FLORIDA REPRESENTATIVES. 

Stephen M. Sparkman, Democrat, of First District, was bom 
July 29, 1849, in Hernando County, Fla.; educated in the common 
schools of Florida; admitted to bar in October, 1872; state attorney 
for the sixth judicial circuit for nine years, from 1878 to 1887 ; elected 
to the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the 
Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Robert Wyche Davis, Democrat, of Second District, was born 
in Lee County, Ga., :March 15, 1849 ; educated in the common schools 
of his native State ; read law and was admitted to the bar ; removed 
to Florida in 1879; elected to the Legislature from Clay County of 



Amekican- History. 46* 

the latter State in 1884; made general attorney for the Florida 
Southern Railroad Company in 1885; elected to the Fifty-fifth Con- 
gress; re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

GEORGIA SENATORS. 

Augustus Octavius Bacon, Democrat, of Macon, was born in Bryan 

County, Ga., October 20, 3 839; received education at University of 
Georgia, in the literary and classical department in 1859, and in the 
law department in I860; began practice in 1866 at Macon; in 1871 
was elected to the Georgia House of Eepresentatives, of which body he 
served as a member for fourteen years; elected to the United States 
Senate in November, 1894, for the term beginning March 4, 1895. 

Alexander Stephens Clay, Democrat, of Marietta, Cobb County, 
Ga., was born September 25, 1853; graduated from Hiawassee College 
in 1875; admitted to the bar in September, 1877; odected a member 
of the City Council in 1880 and re-elected in 1881; in 1884-85 and 
1886-87 represented Cobb County in the General Assembly of the 
State : re-elected for 1889-90 ; in 1893 was elected to the State Senate, 
and served as president of that body for two years; elected to the 
United States Senate, to succeed John B. Gordon, in October, 1896. 

GEORGIA REPRESENTATIVES. 

Rnfus E. Lester, Democrat, of First District, was born in Burke 
County, Ga., December 12, 1837; graduated at Mercer University, 
Georgia, 1857; admitted to the bar in Savannah and commenced the 
practice of law in 1859 ; State Senator from the first senatorial dis- 
trict of Georgia, 1870-1879; mayor of Savannah from Januarj^, 1883, 
to January, 1^889 ; elected to the Fifty-first, Fifty-second, Fifty-third, 
Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 

James M. Griggs, Democrat, of Second District, was born at 
Lagrange, Ga., on March 29, 1861; educated at the Peabody Normal 
CoUege, at Nashville, Teun. ; studied law ; admitted to the bar in 1883 ; 
remored to Dawson in 1885 ; elected solicitor-general (prosecuting at- 
torney) of the Pataula judicial circuit in 1888 ; re-elected in 1892 ; ap- 



470 Memorial Volume of 

pointed judge of the same circuit, and twice re-elected without opposi- 
tion; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 

Elijah Banks Lewis, Democrat, of Third District, was born in 
Dooly County, Ga., March 27, 1854; educated in the common schools 
of Dooly and Macon counties; elected to the State Senate for the 
years 1894-95; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress to succeed Hon. 
Charles F. Crisp, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

■William Charles Adamson, Democrat, of Fourth District, was 
born at Bowdon, Ga., August 13, 1854; took the collegiate course at 
Bowdon College, graduating in 1874; read law; admitted to the bar 
October, 1876; judge of the city court of Carrollton from 1885 to 
1889; attorney for the city of Carrollton for a number of years; 
elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress; re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Con- 
gress. 

Leonidas Felix Livingston, Democrat, of Fifth District, was 
born in Newton County, Ga., April 3, 1832; educated in the common 
schools of the county; was for two terms a member of the House of 
Representatives and one term a member of the State Senate; was 
elected to the Fifty-second, Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth 
Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Charles Lafayette Bartlett, Democrat, of Sixth District, was 
born at ]\[onticello, Jasper Count}', Ga., on January 31, 1853; edu- 
cated in the schools of ]\lonticello and the University of Georgia ; stud- 
ied law at the University of Virginia and admitted to the bar in Au- 
gust, 1872; appointed solicitor-general (prosecuting attorney) for the 
Macon judicial court January 31, 1877; elected to the House of Eepre- 
sentatives of Georgia in 1882 and 1883, and again in 1884 and 1885, 
and to the State Senate in 1889; elected judge of the Superior Court 
of the Macon circuit Januar}' 1, 1893; elected to the Fifty-fourth and 
Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

John W. Maddox, Democrat, of Seventh District, was born on 
June 3, 1848, in Chattooga County, Ga. ; received a common school 
education; admitted to the bar, September term, 1877; elected to the 
State Legislature, October, 1880, re-elected in 1882; elected to repre- 



American History. 471 

sent the forty-second senatorial district in 1884; elected judge of the 
Superior Court, Eome circuit, in November, 188(5, and re-elected in 
November, 1890; elected to the Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty- 
fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

William Marcellus Howard, Democrat, of Eighth District, Lex- 
ington, was born at Berwick City, La., of Georgia parents, December 
6, 1857; graduated from the University of Georgia; began practice of 
law February, 1880; elected solicitor-general of the northern circuit 
of Georgia, 1881; re-elected in 1888 and in 1892; elected to the Fifty- 
fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Farish Carter Tate, Democrat, of Ninth District, was born at 
Jasper, Pickens County, Ga., November 20, 1856; educated in the 
North Georgia Agricultural College; admitted to the bar in 1880; 
member of the General Assembly of Georgia six years; elected to the 
Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to 
the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

William Henry Fleming, Democrat, of Tenth District, was born 
at Augusta, Eichmond County, Ga., on October 18, 185G ; educated at 
the State University at Athens, Ga. ; admitted to the bar in November, 
1880; elected to the State Legislature, 1888, 1890 and 1892; again 
elected in 1894 ; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress by a majority of 
2,914 votes, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

William Gordon Brantley, Democrat, of Eleventh District, was 
born at Blackshear, Pierce County, Ga., on September 18, 1860 ; edu- 
cated in common schools, with two years at University of Georgia; 
admitted to the bar in October, 1881; represented Pierce County in 
Georgia House of Eepresentatives in 1884-85; represented third sena- 
toria? district in Georgia Senate in 1886-87; elected to the Fifty- 
fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

IDAHO SENATOES. 

George Laird Shoup, Eepublican, of Boise, was born at Kittan- 
ning, Armstrong County, Pa., June 15, 1836; educated in the public 
schools of Freeport and Slate Lick; was appointed governor of Idaho 
Territory in March, 1889, which position he held until elected gov- 



473 Memorial Yoltjme of 

ernor of the State of Idaho, October 1, 1890; elected to the United 
States Senate, December 18, 1890, and took his seat Deccnber 29, 
1890: was re-elected in 1895. 

Henry Heitfeld, Populist, of Lewiston, was born in St. Louis, 
Mo., January 12, 1859; received his early education in the schools of 
that city; located in Idaho in 1883; elected State Senator in 1894 and 
re-elected in 1896; elected United States Senator, January 28, 1897. 

IDAHO REPRESENTATIVE. 

Edgar Wilson, Silver Kepublican, of Boise City, was born in 
Armstrong County, Pa., February 25, 1861 ; graduated in the law 
department of Micliigan University in the Class of 1884; went to 
Idaho the same year and located at Boise City; elected city attorney 
of Boise City in 1887, and district attorney in 1888; elected to the 
Fifty-fourth Congress; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

ILLINOIS SENATORS. 

Shelby M. Cullom, Republican, of Springfield, was born in Wayne 
County, Ky., November 22, 1829; went to Springfield, 111., in the fall 
of 1853 to stud}'^ law; elected a member of the House of Eepresenta- 
tives, 1856, 1860, 1872 and 1874; elected a Representative from Illi- 
nois in the Thirty-ninth, Fortieth and Forty-first Congresses; elected 
governor of Illinois in 1876 and succeeded himself in 1880; elected 
to the United States Senate; took his seat December 4, 1883; was 
re-elected in 1888 and again in 1894. 

William E. Mason, Republican, of Chicago, was born in Franklin- 
ville, Cattaraugus County, N. Y., July 7, 1850; went to Chicago in 
1873, and has practiced law there ever since; elected to the General 
Assembly in 1879, to the State Senate in 1881; was elected to the 
Fiftieth and Fifty-first Congresses; elected to the United States Sen- 
ate, January 20, 1897. 

ILLINOIS REPRESENTATIVES. 

James R. Mann, Republican, of First District, was born in 1856 ; 
graduate of the University of Illinois, and the Union College of Law 



American History. 473 

in Chicago ; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the 

Fifty-sixth Congress. 

William Lorimer, Republican, of Second District, was born in 
Manchester, England, April 27, 1861; came to this country and set- 
tled in Chicago in 1870; elected to the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth 
Congresses; re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Georg-e P. Foster, Democrat, of Third District, was born in 
Dover, K. J., April 3, 1860; came to Chicago when seven years of age; 
graduated from Union College of Law of Chicago in 1882; admitted 
to the bar the same year; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Thomas Cusack, Democrat, of Fourth District, was born in Ire- 
land, October 5, 1858; attended private and public schools in Chicago 
and New York; member of the Board of Education of Chicago from 
1891 until 1898; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Edward T. Noonan, Democrat, of Fifth District, was born in 
Macomb, 111., October 23, 1861; studied law; admitted to the bar in 
1882; member of the State Senate of Illinois from 1890 to 1894; in 
1898 was elected as a member of the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Henry Sherman Boutell, Republican, of Sixth District, was born 
in Boston, Mass., March 14, 1856; graduated from Harvard Univer- 
sity in 1876; admitted to the bar in 1879; elected a member of the 
Illinois General Assembly in 1884; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress; 
re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

George Edmund Ross, Republican, of Seventh District, was born 
at Berkshire, Franklin County, Vt., July 2, 1863; graduated from 
Harvard College in 1885 ; graduated from the Union College of Law 
of Chicago in 1889; admitted to the bar the same year; re-elected to 
tlie Fifty-fifth and Fifty-sixth Congresses. 

Albert J. Hopkins, Republican, of Eighth District, was born in 
Dekalb County, III, August 15, 1846; graduated at Hillsdale (Mich.) 
College in June, 1870 ; studied law and commenced practice at Aurora, 
111.; state's attorney of Kane County from 1872 to 1876; elected to 
the Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, Fifty-first, Fifty-second, Fifty-third, Fifty- 
fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth 
Conffiess. 



474 Memorial Volume of 

Robert Roberts Hitt, Eepublicaii, of Xinth District, was born at 
Urbana, Ohio, Jannar}^ 16, 1834; removed to Ogle County, 111., in 
1837; educated at De Pauw University; Assistant Secretary of State 
in 1881; elected to the Forty-seventh, Forty-eighth, Forty-ninth, 
Fiftieth, Fifty-first, Fifty-second, Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty- 
fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

George W. Prince, Republican, of Tenth District, was born 
March 4, 1854, in Tazewell County, 111.; graduated from Knox Col- 
lege, Galesburg, 111., in 1878; admitted to the bar in 1880; elected 
city attorney of Galesburg in 1881; elected a member of the Lower 
House of the General Assembly of Illinois in 1888; re-elected in 1890; 
elected to the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to 
the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Walter Reeves, Republican, of Eleventh District, was born Sep- 
tember 25, 1848, near Brownsville, Pa.; removed to Illinois in 1856; 
became a teacher and a lawyer ; elected to the Fifty-fourth and Fifty- 
fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Joseph G. Cannon, Republican, of Twelfth District, was born at 
Guilford, N. C, May 7, 1836; is a lawyer; was state's attorney in 
Illinois, March, 1861, to December, 1868; elected to the Forty-third, 
Forty-fourth, Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth, Forty-seventh, Forty-eighth, 
Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, Fifty-first, Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty- 
fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Vespasian Warner, Republican, of Thirteenth District, was born 
at Mount Pleasant, Dewitt County, 111., April 23, 1842; in 184-] 
removed to Clinton, 111.; attended Lombard University, Galesburg, 
111. ; served in Union Army and on the plains ; on leaving the service 
he entered the law department of Harvard Uuiversity, from which lu; 
graduated in 1868; returned to Clinton and commenced the practice 
of law: elected to the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and 
re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Joseph V. Graff, Republican, of Fourteenth District, was born at 
Terre Haute, Ind., July 1, 1854; graduated at the Terre Haute High 
School; studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1879; elected to 
the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the 
Fifty-sixth Congress. 



AMiERiCAN" History. 475 

Benjamin F. Marsh, Eepublican, of Fifteenth District, was born 
in Wythe Township, in said county; admitted to the bar in 18G0; in 
1876 was elected to the Forty-fifth Congress from the then tenth dis- 
trict, and was re-elected to the Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh Con- 
gresses; elected to the Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Con- 
gresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

William Elza Williams, Democrat, of Sixteenth District, was 

born at Detroit, May 5, 1857; educated in Illinois College; entered 
the legal profession; elected to the office of state's attorney 1886; 
re-elected in 1888; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Ben Franklin Caldwell, Democrat, of Seventeenth District, was 
born near Carrollton, Greene County, 111., August 2, 1848; member 
of the Illinois House of Eepresentatives 1882-86; member of the 
Illinois State Senate 1890-94; was renominated by the Democrats 
for Congress in 1898 and defeated Isaac R. Mills, of Macon County, 
by a plurality of 2,240. 

Thomas M. Jett, Democrat, of Eighteenth District, was born on a 
farm in Bond County, 111., May 1, 1862; attended college two years 
at the IS'orthern Indiana jSTormal School, Valparaiso, Ind. ; read law; 
admitted to practice in May, 1887; elected state's attorney of Mont- 
gomery County, 111., in 1889 ; served two terms, covering a period of 
about eight years; elected to Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to 
the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Joseph B. Crowley, Democrat, of Nineteenth District, was born 
July 19, 1858, in Coshocton, Ohio; removed with his parents 
to Eobinson in 1872, and was educated in the common schools; 
admitted to the bar in May, 1883; elected county judge of Crawford 
County in November, 1886, and re-elected in 1890; elected to the 
Fifty-sixth Congress. 

James Robert Williams, Democrat, of Twentieth District, was 
born in White County, 111., December 27, 1850; graduated from the 
State University of Indiana and the Union College of Law, Chicago ; 
master in chancery from 1880 to 1882; county judge from 1882 to 
1886 ; a member of the Fifty-first, Fifty-second and Fifty-third Con- 
gresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 



476 Memorial Volume of 

William A. Rodenberg, Eepublican, of Twenty-first District, was 
born near Chester, Eandolph County, 111., October 30, 1865; gradu- 
ated from Central Wesleyan College in 1884; attended the St. Louis 
Law School, and admitted to the bar; elected to the Fifty-sixth Con- 
gress. 

George W. Smith, Eepublican, of Twenty-second District, was 
born in Putnam County, Ohio, August 18, 1846 ; graduated from the 
literary department of McKendree College, at Lebanon, 111., in 1868; 
read law in Fairfield, 111.; elected to the Fifty-first, Fifty-second, 
Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to 
the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

INDIANA SENATORS. 

Charles Warren Fairbanks, Eepublican, of Indianapolis, was 
born on a farm near Union ville Centre, Union County, Ohio, May 11, 
1852; educated in the common schools of the neighborhood and at the 
Ohio Wesleyan University ; admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court 
of Ohio in 1874; removed to Indianapolis in the same year; elected 
to the United States Senate, January 20, 1897, to succeed Daniel W. 
Voorhees, Democrat, and took his seat March 4, 1897. 

Albert Jeremiah Beveridge, Eepublican, was born on a farm in 
Highland County, Ohio, October 6, 1862; was elected to the Senate 
of the United States by the sixty-first General Assembly of the State 
of Indiana, January 17, 1899. 

INDIANA REPRESENTATIVES. 

James A. Hemenway, Eepublican, of First District, was born 
March 8, 1860, at Boonville, Ind. ; educated in the common schools; 
commenced the practice of law in 1885; in 1886 and again in 1888 
was elected prosecuting attorney of the second judicial circuit of 
Indiana ; elected to the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and 
re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Robert W. Miers, Democrat, of Second District, was born in 
Decatur County, Ind., January 27, 1848 ; graduate of both the lit- 
erary and the law dej)artmcnts of Indiana L^niversity; elected prose- 



American History. 477 

cuting attorney for the tenth judicial circuit of Indiana in 1875 and 
re-elected in 1877; was elected to the House of Eeprescntatives of the 
Indiana Legislature in 1879; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress; 
re-elected a member of the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

William T. Zenor, Democrat, of Third District, was born in 
Harrison County, Ind. ; educated at the seminary of Professor James 
G. ]\Iay; admitted to the bar in 1870, at Corydon; elected to the 
Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Francis Marion Griffith, Democrat, of Fourth District, was born 
in Switzerland County, Ind., x\ugust 21, 1819; educated at Franklin 
College; admitted to the bar in May, 1877; served as State Senator 
from 1886 to 1894; elected to Fifty-fifth and Fifty-sixth Congresses. 

George W. Paris, Eepublican, of Fifth District, was born in 
Jasper County, Ind., June 9, 1854; in 1872 he entered Asbury Univer- 
sity, and graduated with his class in 1877; read law; was admitted to 
the bar; in 1880 removed to Terre Haute; elected to the Fifty-fourth 
Congress from the eighth district, and elected to the Fifty-fifth Con- 
gress from the present fifth district, the State having been reappor- 
tioned in 1895, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

James E. Watson, Piepublican, of Sixth District, was born in 
Winchester, Randolph County, Ind., November 2, 1864; graduated 
from the Winchester High School in 1881; admitted to the bar in 
1886 ; elected to the Fifty-fourth Congress over the veteran William 
S. Holman, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Jesse Overstreet, Eepublican, of Seventh District, was born in 
Johnson County, Ind., December 14, 1859; received collegiate educa- 
tion, and was admitted to the bar in 1886 ; elected to the Fifty-fourth 
and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

George Washington Cromer, Republican, of Eighth District, was 
born May 13, 1856, in Madison County, Ind.; educated in the State 
University at Bloomington, Ind. ; elected prosecuting attorney of^ the 
fortv-sixtii judicial circuit of Indiana in 1886; re-elected in 1888; 
elected mayor of ^luncie in 1894; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Charles B. Landis, Republican, of Xinth District, was born July 
9, 1858, in Millville, Butler County, Ohio; graduated from Wabash 



478 Memorial Volume oip 

College, Ind., in 1883 ; served for four years, from 1883 to 1887, as 
editor of the Logansport (Ind.) Journal; elected to the Fifty-fifth 
Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Edgar D. Crumpacker, Republican, of Tenth District, was born 
May 27, 1851, in Laporte County, Ind.; educated at the Valparaiso 
Academy; admitted to the bar in 1876; prosecuting attorney for the 
thirty-first judicial district of Indiana from 1884 to 1888; elected 
to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

George W. Steele, Eepublican, of Eleventh District, was born in 
Indiana; educated at the Ohio Western University; member of the 
Forty-seventh, Fort3^-eighth, Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, Fifty-fourth and 
Fifty-fifth Congresses, and was re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

James M. Robinson, Democrat, of Twelfth District, was born in 
1861 ; attended country school and later the public schools in Fort 
Wayne; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1882; in 1886 and 
1888 was unanimously nominated for prosecuting attorney and elected; 
elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth 
Congress. 

Abraham Lincoln Brick, Eepublican, of Thirteenth District, 
was born in St. JoscjdIi County, Ind., May 27, 1860; attended Cor- 
nell, Yale and Micliigan universities; after being graduated from 
the law department of the Michigan University in 1883, immediately 
took up the practice of the law in South Bend; elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 

IOWA SENATORS. 

Jonathan Prentiss Dolliver, Republican, of Fort Dodge, was born 
near Kingwood, Preston County, Va., February 6, 1858; graduated 
in 1875 from the West Virginia University; admitted to the bar in 
1878 ; elected to the Fifty-first Congress as a representative from 
the tenth congressional district of Iowa; member of the House also 
in the Fifty-second, Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth, Fifty-fifth, and Fifty- 
sixth Congresses; July 22, 1900, was appointed Senator to fill the un- 
expired term of Hon. J. H. Gear, deceased, and took his seat in the 
United States Senate December 3, 1900. 



American History. 479 

William Boyd Allison, Republican, of Dubnque, was born at Perry 
Obio, IMarch 2, 1829, educated at tbc Western Reserve College, Ohio; 
studied law and practiced in Ohio until he removed to Iowa in 1857; 
elected a Eepresentative in the Thirty-eighth, Thirty-ninth, Fortieth 
and Forty-first Congresses, and re-elected to the United States Senate 
to succeed James Harlan, Republican; took his seat March 4, 1873, 
and was re-elected in 1878, 1884, 1890 and 189G. 

IOWA REPRESENTATIVES. 

Thomas Hedge, Republican, of First District, was born in the town 
of Burlington, Territory of Iowa, June 24, 1844 : graduated from Yale 
College in 1867 and from Columbia College Law School, New York, in 
1869 ; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Joe R. Lane, Republican, of Second District, was born at Daven- 
port, Iowa, May 6, 1858; educated at Knox College, Galesburg, 111.; 
studied law at the State University of Iowa; elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 

David Bremner Henderson, Republican, of Third District, was 
born at Old Deer, Scotland, March 14, 1840; brought to Iowa in 
1849 ; educated at Upper Iowa University; admitted to the bar in the 
fall of 1865 ; assistant United States district attorney for the north- 
ern division of the district of Iowa about two years, resigning in 1871 ; 
elected to the Forty-eighth, Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, Fifty-first, Fifty- 
second, Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re- 
elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Gilbert N. Hansen, Republican, of Fourth District, was born April 
21, 1859, in Rock County, Wis. ; received a common-school education ; 
elected treasurer of Worth County in 1887; elected to the Iowa Legis- 
lature, serving in the Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth general assem- 
blies; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congrss. 

Robert G. Cousins, Republican, of Fifth District, was born in 
Cedar County, Iowa, in 1859; graduated at Cornell, Iowa, in 1881; 
admitted to the bar in 1882 ; in 1886 was elected to the Iowa Legisla- 
ture; elected to the Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Con- 
gresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 



480 Memorial Volume of 

John Fletcher Lacey, Eepnblican, of Sixth District, was born at 
New Martinsville, Va., May 30, 1841 ;* removed to Iowa in 1855; re- 
ceived a common-school and academic education ; served one term in 
city council ; one term as city solicitor of Oskaloosa ; was a member 
of the Fifty-first, Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, 
and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

John A. T. Hull, Eepublican, of Seventh District, was born at 
Sabina, Clinton County, Ohio, May 1, 1841; removed with his parents 
to Iowa in 1849 ; educated in public schools, Asbury (Ind.) University, 
and Iowa Wesleyan College; graduated from the Cincinnati (Ohio) 
Law School in the spring of 1862; elected Secretary of State in 1878 
and re-elected in 1880 iind 1882; elected lieutenant-governor in 1885 
and re-elected in 1887 ; elected to the Fifty-second, Fifty-third. Fifty- 
fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth 
Congress. 

William Peters Hepburn, Republican, of Eighth District, was 
born November 4, 1833, at Wellsville, Columbiana County, Ohio ; ad- 
mitted to practice law in 1854; served as solicitor of the treasury dur- 
ing the administration of President Benjamin Harrison; elected to 
the Forty-seventh, Forty-eighth, Forty-ninth, Fifty-third, Fifty- 
fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth 
Congress. 

Walter I. Smith, Republican, of Ninth District, was born at 
Council Bluffs, July 10, 1862; received a common-school education; 
was admitted to bar December, 1882 ; elected judge of the fifteenth 
judicial district of Iowa in November, 1890, and re-elected in 1894 
and in 1898; was elected, in November, 1900, to the Fifty-sixth Con- 
gress. 

James Perry Conner, Republican, of Tenth District, was born in 
Delaware County, Ind., January 27, 1851; graduated from the law 
department of the State University at Iowa City, in June, 1873; in 
1880 elected district attorney of the thirteenth judicial district; in 
1884 elected circuit judge of the thirteenth judicial district of Iowa; 
in 1886 was elected district judge of the sixteenth judicial district of 
Iowa : on September 26, 1900, was nominated to the Fifty-sixth Con- 
gress, and elected. 



American History. 481 

Lot Thomas, Eepublican, of Eleventh District, was born on the 
17th of October, 18-13, in Fa3^ette County, Pa.; on the 1st of January, 
1870, entered the hiw department of the Iowa State University admit- 
ted to the bar Avhile in Iowa City ; 1 885 went on the beiieb of tlie four- 
teenth judicial district of Iowa; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

KANSAS SENATORS. 

Lucien Baker, Eepublican, of Leavenworth, was born in Ohio in 
1846, and shortly thereafter removed with his parents to Michigan; 
in 1869 he removed to Kansas and settled in Leavenworth, where he 
has since resided, engaged in the practice of law; was elected to the 
United States Senate in 1895. 

William Alexander Harris, Populist, of Linwood, Leavenworth 
County, was born in Loudoun County, Va., October 29, 1841 ; gradu- 
ated at Columbian College, Washington, D. C, in 1859; removed to 
Kansas in 1865; elected to the Fifty-third Congress, at large, as a 
Populist, and endorsed by the Democrats; was renominated for the 
Fifty-fourth Congress, but was defeated at the election ; elected to the 
State Senate November, 1896, and was elected in January, 1897, to the 
United States Senate and took his seat March 4, 1897. 

KANSAS REPRESENTATIVES. 

Willis J. Bailey, Eepublican, Eepresentative-at-Large, was born 
October 12, 1854, in Carroll County, 111.; educated in the Univer- 
sity of Illinois; moved to Nemaha County, Kans., in 1879; elected to 
the Kansas Legislature in 1888; on November 8, 1898, was elected 
to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Charles Curtis, Eepublican, of First District, was born in North 
Topeka, Shawnee County, Kans., January 25„ 1860 ; studied law, and 
admitted to the bar in 1881; elected county attorney of Shawnee 
Countv in 1884 and re-elected in 1886; elected to the Fifty-third, 
Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses from the Fourth Kansas Dis- 
trict ; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress for First District. 

Justin De Witt Bowersock, Eepublican, of Second District, was 
b.n-n in Columbiana County, Ohio, September, 19, 1843; moved to 

31 



482 Memorial Volume of 

Lawrence, Kaiis., in 1877; twice elected mayor of Lawrence; served in! 
the Kansas House of Representatives in 1877; State Senate in 1895;' 
elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. i 

Edwin Reed Ridgely, Popnlist, of Third District, was horn May 
9, 1844, in Wahash County, 111. ; moved to Girard Kans., ; nominated , 
by the People's and Democratic parties and elected to the Fifty-fifth 
Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

James Monroe Miller, Republican, of Fourth District, was born i 
at Three Springs, Huntingdon County, Pa. ; educated at Dickinson | 
Seminary as a lawyer ; elected county attorney of Morris County, I 
Kans., in 1880; re-elected in 1884 and 1886; elected a member of the 
Kansas Legislature in 1894; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. j 

William A. Calderhead, Republican, of Fifth District, was born in ' 
Perry County, Ohio, September 26, 1844; educated at Franklin Col- i 
lege, Xew Athens, Ohio; in 1872 settled on a homestead near Newton, 
Harvey County, Kans. ; admitted to the bar in 1875 ; elected county 
attorney in the fall of 1888; elected to the Fifty-fourth Congress; 
renominated in 1898, and elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

William Aiigfustus Reader, Republican, of Sixth District, was , 

born August 28, 1849, in Cumberland County, Pa. ; engaged in the ' 
banking business in the city of Logan, Kans. ; in 1898 was elected to 

the Fifty-sixth Congress. , 

Chester I. Long, Republican, of Seventh District, was born in | 
Perry County, Pa., October 12, 1860; removed to Paola, Kans.; 
received an academic education ; studied law, and was admitted to the | 
bar March 4, 1885 ; elected to the State Senate in 1889 ; elected to the 
Fifty-fourth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

KENTUCKY SENATORS. I 

William Lindsay, Democrat, of Frankfort, was born in Rock- ' 
bridge County, Ya., September 4, 1835 ; settled in Clinton, Hickman 
Count}^, Ky., in November, 1854; commenced the practice of law in 
1858; elected State Senator for the Hickman District in August, 1867; 
elected Judge of the Kentucky Court of Appeals in August, 1870; 
elected State Senator for the Fraukfort District in August, 1889; 



American History. 483 

elected United States Senator on February 14, 1893; re-elected in Jan- 
v.a.Tj, 1894, for the full term commencing March 4, 1895. 

William J. De'coe, Kepublicau, of jMarion, was born in Crittenden 
County, Ky., in 1849; graduated from the Medical University of 
Louisville; admitted to the bar; in 1893 was elected to the State 
Senate; in 1896 was a delegate from the State, at large, to the St. 
Louis convention ; elected to the United States Senate in 1897. 

KENTUCKY REPRESENTATIVES. 

Charles Kennedy Wheeler, Democrat, of First District, was bom 
in Christian County, Ky., April 18, 18G3; graduated from the Leb- 
anon Law School, of Lebanon, Tenn., in the summer of 1880; located 
at Paducah, Ky., in August, 1880; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, 
and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Henry D. Allen, Democrat, of Second District, was born in PTen- 
derson County, Ky., June 24, 1854 educated at Morganfield Col- 
legiate Institute; admitted to the bar in July, 1878; elected county 
attorney, and served in that capacity for nine years; elected to the 
Fifty-sixth Congress. 

John S. Rhea, Democrat, of Third District, was born in Eussell- 
ville, Logan County, Ky., March 9, 1855; educated at Bethel College, 
Uussellville, Ky., and Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Ya. ; 
licensed to practice law in the fall of 1873; elected prosecuting attor- 
ney for Logan County in 1878 and 1882; elected to the Fifty- 
fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

David Highbaugh Smith, Democrat of Fourth District, was born 
December 19, 1854, in Hart County, Ky.; educated at the colleges at 
Horse Cave, Leitchfield and Hartford, all in Kentucky, has been prac- 
ticing law since March, 1876; elected county attorney for Larue 
County at the August election, 1878; in 1881 elected to represent 
Larue County in the House of Eepresentatives ; in the State Senate for 
the term of four years; re-elected at the August, 1889, election for 
four years; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the 
Fifty-sixth Congress. 



484 Memorial Volume of 

Oscar Turner, Democrat, of Fifth District, was born at Wood- 
lands, Ballard County, Ky., October 19, 1867; attended the Louis- 
ville Rugby School for three or four years; studied law at the Univer- 
sity of Louisville and the University of Virginia ; elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 

Albert Seaton Berry, Democrat, of Sixth District, was born in 
Campbell County, Ky. ; educated at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio ; 
attended Cincinnati Law School ; served two terms in the State Senate 
and five terms as mayor of Newport ; elected to the Fifty-third, Fifty- 
fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth 
Congress. 

June W. Gayle, Democrat, of Seventh District, was born at New 
Liberty, Owen County, Ky., February 22, 1865 ; received his early edu- 
cation at Concord College, New Liberty, Ky., finishing his course at 
Ceorgetown College, Georgetown, Ky. ; in 1892 was elected high 
sheriff of Owen County; re-elected in 1894 and in 1899 ; elected to the 
Fifty-sixth Congress at the special election, December 18, 1899. 

George Gilmore Gilbert, Democrat, of Eighth District, was born 
in Spencer County, Ky. ; educated at Lyndland Institute, in Kentucky ; 
attended University of Louisville and graduated from the law depart- 
ment in 1873; elected county attorney of Spencer County in 1876; 
elected to the State Senate in 1885 ; elected to the Fifty-sixth Con- 
gress. 

Samuel Johnson Pugh, Republican, of Ninth District, was born 
in Greenup County, Ky., January 28, 1850; educated at Chandler's 
Select School, Rand's Academy and Centre College, Danville, Ky. ; has 
been practicing law since 1872; elected county judge, 1886-1890; 
State Senator, 1893-94; elected to the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth 
Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Thomas Young Fitzpatrick, Democrat, of Tenth District, was 
born in Floyd County, Ky., September 20, 1850; educated in the com- 
mon schools; studied law, and M^as admitted to the bar in 1877; has 
filled the positions of circuit and county court clerk, county judge, 
county attorney and Representative in the State Legislature; elected 
to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fiftj-sixtli Cougresb, 



American History. 485 

Vincent Boreing, Eepublican, of Eleventh District, was born 
November 24, 1839, iu Washington County, Tenn. ; educated at Laurel 
Seminary, London, Ky., and Tusculum College, Greenville, Tenn. ; 
elected county judge in 1886; department commander of the Depart- 
ment of Kentucky, Grand Army of the Eepublic, in 1889 ; elected to 
the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

LOUISIANA SENATORS. 

Donelson Caffery, Democrat, of Franklin, St. Mary Parish, was 
born in the parish of St. Mary, La., September 10, 1835; educated at 
St. Mary's College, Maryland; studied law in Louisiana and was 
admitted to the bar ; elected to Senate in 1892 ; elected by the Legisla- 
ture in 1894 to fill out the term of Eandall Lee Gibson ; and March 3, 
1895, to succeed himself for the long term. 

Samuel Douglas McEnery, Democrat, of ISTew Orleans, was born 
at Monroe, La., Ma}^, 28, 1S37 ; educated at Spring Hill College, the 
United States Naval Academy and the University of Virginia; gradu- 
ated from State and National Law School, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. ; nom- 
inated by the Democratic party for governor, and elected in 1884; 
nominated by Democratic caucus for Senator at the session of the Leg- 
islature in 1896, and elected ; took his seat March 4, 1897. 

LOUISIANA REPRESENTATIVES. 

Adolph Meyer, Democrat, of First District, was born October 19, 
1842 : student at the University of Virginia until 1862 : elected to the 
Fifty-second, Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, 
and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Robert C. Davey, Democrat, of Second District, was born in New 
Orleans October 22, 1853; entered St. Vincent's College, Cape Girar- 
deau. Mo., in 1869, and graduated in 1871 : elected a member of the 
State Senate December, 1879, and re-elected April, 1884, and again 
elected in April, 1892; elected judge of the first recorder's court 
November, 1880; re-elected November, 1882; re-elected April, 1884, 
and served until May, 1888; elected to the Fifty-third Congress; 
was elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 



486 Memoeial Volume op 

Robert F. Broussard, Democrat, of Third District,was born August 
17, 1864, near New Iberia, parish of Iberia, La.; attended Georgetown 
University, West Washington, D. C, where he remained until 1883; 
became the nominee of the Anti-Lottery wing of the Democratic party 
for the district attorneyship; elected at the State election of 1892; 
1894 renominated to the same position by the Democratic party, and 
re-elected at the election of that year; elected to the Fifty-fifth Con- 
gress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Phanor Breazeale, Democrat, of Fourth District, was born in 
Natchitoches Parish, La., December 29, 1858; attended law lectures 
at Tulane University ; received his diploma as a lawyer in 1881 ; edited 
a newspaper in Natchitoches for two years; elected district attorney 
of the tenth judicial district in 1892, and was re-elected in 1896; 
elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Joseph Eugene Ransdell, Democrat, of Fifth District, was born 
in Alexandria, La., on October 7, 1858, of John H. Eansdell and 
Amanda Terrell ; graduated at Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., in 
June, 1882; admitted to the bar in June, 1883; elected district attor- 
ney of the eighth judicial district of Louisiana in April, 1884 elected 
to the Fifty-sixth Congress in 1897. 

Samuel Matthews Robertson, Democrat, of Sixth District, was 
born in the town of Plaquemine, La., January 1, 1852 ; graduated from 
the Louisiana State University in 1874; completed a course of law 
study, and was admitted to practice in 1877 ; elected a member of the 
State Legislature in 1879 for a term of four years; in 1880 elected a 
member of the faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricul- 
tural and Mechanical College; filled the chair of natural history in 
that institution and the position of commandant of cadets until he 
was elected to the Fiftieth Congress; elected to the Fifty-first, Fifty- 
second, Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and 
unanimously re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

MAINE SENATORS. 

William Pierce Frye, Kepublican, was bom at Lewiston, Me., 
September 2, 1831. His father was Colonel John M. Frye one of the 



American History. 487 

early settlers and most respected citizens of the town. Tlis grandfather 
was General Joseph Frye, a general in tlie American army during the 
Revolutionary War. For his military services he received a grant of 
the town of Fryeburg Me. William P. graduated at Bowdoin College, 
Me., in 1860, and began practicing law in 1863. 

In Public Life, — He was a member of the State Legislature in 
1861, 1862 and 1867. In the latter year he was elected attorney-gen- 
eral of the State, and served for three years. 

In Congress. — In 1871 he was elected to Congress, and in 1872, 
1876 and 1880 ho was a member of the National Republican Executive 
Committee. In the same years he was chosen as a delegate to the 
National Repulican Conventions. In 1881 he was elected chairman of 
the Republican State Committee to succeed James G. Blaine. In 1880 
he was elected a trustee of Bowdoin College, from which he received the 
degree of LL. D., in 1889. 

In the Senate. — From 1871 he was elected continuously to Con- 
gress until 1881, when he was elected to the United States Senate. He 
was re-elected in 1883, 1888 and 1895. Was elected president pro 
tempore of the Senate in 1896, and served as a member of the Paris 
peace treaty in 1898. 

Acting Vice-President. — Upon the death of Vice-President 
Hobart, in 1899, Mr. Frye assumed the duties of his office, as presiding 
officer of the Senate. In the House Mr. Frye was always an active 
member of leading committees. 

Committee Service. — In the Senate he has for years been chair- 
man of the committees on Commerce and Rules, and member of that 
on Foreign Relations. He has always taken a keen interest in debates 
and reports, and has never been out of demand as a campaign orator, 
having participated in every national campaign for forty years and 
spoken in nearly every Northern State. 

Eugene Hale, Republican, of Ellsworth, was born at Turner, 
Oxford County, Me., June 9, 1836 ; received an academic education ; 
studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1857; member of Legislature 
of Maine in 1867, 1868 and 1880; elected to the Forty-first, Forty- 
second and Forty-third Congresses ; re-elected to the Forty-fourth and 
Forty-fifth Congresses ; elected to the United States Senate, to succeed 
Hannibal Hamlin, Republican, and took his scat :March 4, 1881 ; was 
re-elected in 1887, 1893 and in 1899. 



488 Memorial Volume op 

MAINE REPRESENTATIVES. 

Amos L. Allen, Eepublican, of First District, was born in Water- 
borough, York County, Me., March 17, 1837; entered Whitestown 
Seminary, Whitestown, N. Y., in 1853, and the Sophomore Class of 
Bowdoiu College in 1857, graduating in 18G0; studied law at Alfred, 
and attended the Columbian Law School in Washington, D. C, ; was 
admitted to the bar of York County in 186G; member of the Maine 
Legislature in 1886-87; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress, Novem- 
ber (), 1899, to fill the vacancy occasioned bv the resignation of Hon. 
T. B. Reed. 

Charles E. Littlefield, Republican, of Second District, was born 
June 21, 1851, in Lebanon, York County, Me.; received a common- 
school education and studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1876; 
was a member of the Maine Legislature in 1885, and Speaker of the 
House in 1887; attorney-general of the State from 1889 to 1893; 
was elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress June 19, 1899. 

Edwin C. Burleigh, Republican, of Third District, was born at 
Linncus, Aroostook County, Me., November 27, 1843; received a 
common-school and academic education; state treasurer 1885 to 1888; 
governor of Maine 1889 to 1893, inclusive; elected to the Fifty-fifth 
Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Charles Addison Boutelle, Republican, of Fourth District, was 
born at Damariscotta, Lincoln County, Me., February 9, 1839 ; edu- 
cated in the public schools at Brunswick and at Yarmouth Academy ; 
elected Representative-at-Large to the Forty-eighth Congress; elected 
as Representative from the Fourth District to the Forty-ninth, Fif- 
tieth, Fifty-first, Fifty-second, Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty- 
fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress; died 1901. 

MARYLAND SENATORS. 

George L. Wellington, Republican, of Cumberland, was born of 
German parentage at Cumberland, Allegany County, Md., January 28, 
1852 ; attended a German school for a brief period, otherwise self- 
educated ; was appointed by President Harrison assistant treasurer of 
the United States at Baltimore in July, 1890; elected to the Fifty- 



American History. 489 

fourth Congress; was elected to the United States Senate and took his 
seat March 4, 1897. 

Louis Emory McComas, Eepublican, of Williamsport, was born in 
Washington County, Md. ; educated at St. James College, Maryland, 
and at Dickinson College, Pennsylvania ; studied law, and was admit- 
ted to the bar at Hagerstown, Md., in 1868 ; elected to- the Forty-eighth, 
Forty-ninth, Fiftieth and Fifty-first Congresses; appointed by Presi- 
dent Harrison an associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, which office he held until he was elected to the Senate 
to succeed Arthur P. Gorman, Democrat, and took his seat March 4, 
1899. 

MARYLAND REPRESENTATIVES. 

Josiah Leeds Kerr, Kepublican, of First District, was born in the 
town of Vienna, Md.. January 10, 1861; received his education at the 
public schools of Vienna and at Vienna Academy; nominated for 
the unexpired term of John Walter Smith in the Fifty-sixth Congress 
and elected. 

William B. Baker, Eepublican, of Second District, was born near 
Aberdeen, Md., July 22, 1840 ; educated at public and private schools ; 
elected to the House of Delegates as a Eepublican in 1881 and to the 
State Senate in 1893 ; elected to the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Con- 
gresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Frank C. Wachter, Eepublican, of Third District, was born in 
Baltimore, September 16, 1861 educated at private schools nomi- 
nated in 1898 as Eepresentative to the Fifty-sixth Congress, to which 
he was elected. 

James W. Denny, Democrat, of Fourth District, was born in the 
valley of Virginia^ and is fifty-eight years old; was three years at the 
University of A^irginia ; member of the House of Delegates of Mary- 
land in 1888 ; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Sydney Emanuel Mudd, Eepublican, of Fifth District, was born 
February 12, 1858, in Charles County, Md. ; educated at Georgetown 
(D. C.)' College and St. John's College, Annapolis, Md. ; attended the 
law department of the University of Virginia; was admitted to the bar 



490 Memorial Volume of 

in ISSO; was elected to the State House of Delegates in 1ST9 and 
re-elected in 1881 ; elected to the Fifty-first and defeated for the Fift}'- 
second Congress: elected to the State House of Delegates in 1895; 
elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth 
Congress. 

George Alexander Pearre, Eepublican, of Sixth District, was 
born in Cumberland July 16. 1860; educated at Princeton College 
and the University of ^Yest Virginia ; admitted to the bar upon exami- 
nation in the Superior Court in Baltimore City; elected to the State 
Senate of Maryland and served in the sessions of 1890 and 1892 ; 1895 
was nominated prosecuting attorney by the Republican party and 
elected; elected to Fifty-sixth Congress. 

MASSACHUSETTS SENATORS. 

George Frisbie Hoar, Eepublican, of Worcester, was born at Con- 
cord, Mass., August 29, 1826; graduated at Harvard College in 1816; 
studied law and graduated at the Dane Law School, Harvard Univer- 
sit}"; a member of the State House of Representatives in 1852, and of 
the State Senate in 1857; elected Representative to the Forty-first, 
Forty-second, Forty-third and Forty-fourth Congresses; elected to 
the United States Senate, to succeed George S. Boutwell; took his seat 
March 5, 1877, and was re-elected in 1883, 1889 and 1895. 

Henry Cabot Lodge, Republican, of Xahant, was born in Boston, 
Mass., May 12, 1850; graduated from Harvard College 1871; studied 
law at Harvard Law School and graduated in 1875, receiving the 
degree of LL. B. ; was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1876 : author of 
many standard works: served two terms as member of the House of 
Representatives of the Massachusetts Legislature: elected to the 
Fiftietli, Fifty-first, Fifty-second and Fiftv-third Congresses; elected 
to the Senate January 17, 1893: re-elected in 1899. 

MASSACHUSETTS REPHESENTATIVES. 

George Pelton Lawrence, Republican, of First District, was bom 
in Adams, Mass., May 19, 1859 ; graduated at Drury Academy, 1876, 
and at Amherst College 1880; studied law at Columbia Law School; 



American History. 491 

was admitted to the bar in 1883; appointed judge of the district court 
of northern Berkshire in 1885; in 1894 elected to the Massachusetts 
Senate; was a member of the Massachusetts Senate in 1895, 1896 and 
1897; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 

Frederick Huntington Gillett, Eepublican, of Second District, was 
born at Westfield, Mass., October 16, 1851; graduated at Amherst 
College in 1874, and at Harvard Law School in 1877; was admitted 
to the bar in Springfield in 1877; assistant attorney-general of Massa- 
chusetts from 1879 to 1882; was elected to the Massachusetts House 
of Eepresentatives in 1890 and 1891; elected to the Fifty-third, Fifty- > 
fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth 
Congress. ^ 

John R. Thayer, Democrat, of Third District, was born in Doug- 
las, Mass., March 9, 1845 ; entered Yale College in 1865, and graduated 
in the Class of 1869 ; admitted to the bar in 1871 ; was elected to the 
Massachusetts Senate for two terms, in 1890 and 1891; elected to the 
Fifty-sixth Congress. 

George Warren Weymouth, Eepublican, of Fourth District, was 
born Augusi: 25, 1850, at West Amesbury; educated in the public 
schools, graduating from the high school of that place ; one year in tbe 
State Legislature of 1896; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and 
re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

William Shadrach Knox, Eepublican, of Fifth District, was 
born in Killingly, Conn., September 10, 1843 ; graduated at Amherst 
College in Class of 1865; admitted to Essex bar in November, 1866; 
Massachusetts House of Eepresentatives in 1874-75; elected to the 
Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 

William Henry Moody, Eepublican of Sixth District, was born 
in Xewbury, Mass., December 23, 1853; was graduated at Phillips 
Academy, Andover, Mass., in 1872, and from Harvard University in 
1876 ; is a lawyer by profession ; district attorney for the eastern district 
of Massachusetts from 1890 to 1895; elected to the Fifty-fourth 
and Fiftv-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 



493 Memorial Volume op 

Ernest W. Roberts, Republican, of Seventh District, was born 
in East Madison, Me., Xovember 22, 1858; graduated at Boston Uni- 
versity Law School, and" admitted to the bar in 1881; elected a mem- 
ber of the Massachusetts House of Representatives of 1894, 1895 and 
1896; elected a member of the Massachusetts Senate of 1897 and 1898; 
elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Samuel Walker McCall, Republican, of Eighth District, was 
born in East Providence, Pa., February 28, 1851; graduated at Dart- 
mouth College in 1874; admitted to the bar, and since 1876 has prac- 
ticed law in Boston ; was elected' a member of the Massachusetts House 
of Representatives of 1888, 1889 and 1892; elected to the Fifty-third, 
Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 

John Francis Fitzgerald, Democrat, of Ninth District, was born 
in Boston February 11, 18G5; he received his education in the Eliot 
Grammar and the Boston Latin schools and Boston College; elected 
a member of the Massachusetts State Senate in 1893 and 1894; elected 
to the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the 
Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Henry Francis Naphen, Democrat, of Tenth District, was born 
in Ireland August 14, 1847; came to Massachusetts when a child; edu- 
cated in the public schools and under private tutors; admitted to the 
Suffolk bar in 1880; State Senator for the years 1885 and 1886 from 
the fifth Suffolk district ; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Charles Franklin Sprague, Republican, of Eleventh District, was 
born in Boston, Mass., June 10, 1857; graduated from Harvard Uni- 
, versify in 1879; subsequently studied law at the Harvard Law School 
and Boston University; in 1891 and 1892 was in the Massachusetts 
House of Representatives; in 1895 and 1896 was a member of the 
Massachusetts Senate ; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected 
to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

William C. Lovering, Republican, of Twelfth District, was born 
about sixty years ago in Rhode Island; was educated in Cambridge, 
Mass.; was State Senator for two years, 1874-75; nominated by 
acclamation in the congressional convention of the twelfth district 



American History. 403 

September 22, 1896, and elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and 
le-eleeted to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

William Stedman Greene, Eepublican, of Thirteenth District, 
was born in Tremont, Tazewell County, 111., April 28, 1841; removed 
to Fall Eiver in 1844; educated in the public schools of that city; 
appointed postmaster by President McKinley, and entered upon his 
uuties April 1, 1898; resigned this position and was elected to Con- 
gress May 31, 1898, to fill the unexpired term of the late John Simp- 
Icins for the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth 
Congress. 

MICHIGAN SENATORS. 

James McMillan, Republican, of Detroit, was born in Hamilton, 
Ontario, May 12, 1838; removed to Detroit in 1855; in 1879 succeeded 
Zachariah Chandler as chairman of the Eepublican State Central Com- 
mittee, and was chairman in 1886, 1890, 1892 and 1894; elected to the 
United States Senate to succeed Thomas Witherell Palmer, and took 
his seat March 4, 1889. In 1895 he received every vote in the joint 
legislative convention for re-election. 

Julius C. Burrows, Eepublican, of Kalamazoo, was born at iSTorth- 
east, Erie County, Pa., January 9, 1837; received a common-school 
and academic education; by profession a lawyer; elected to the Forty- 
third, Forty-sixth, Forty-seventh, Forty-ninth, Fiftieth and Fifty-first 
Congresses ; twice elected speaker pro tempore of the House of Eepre- 
sentatives during the Fifty-first Congress; elected to the Fifty-second 
and Fifty-third Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-fourth Con- 
gress ; resigned his seat in the House January 23, 1895, to assume the 
office of United States Senator from Michigan, to which he had been 
elected by the Legislature to fill out the unexpired term of Francis 
B. Stockbridge, deceased, and took his seat in the Senate the same day ; 
was re-elected in 1899 for the full term of six years, receiving every 
vote of the Eepublican members of the Legislature. 

MICHIGAN EEPEESENTATIVES. 

John B. Corliss, Eepublican, of First District, was born at Eicli- 
ford, Vt; educated at the Vermont Methodist University; studied 



494 Memorial Volume of 

law at the Columbian Law School, Washington, D. C, and graduated 
from that institution in 1875; in September of the same year he 
settled in Detroit and engaged in the practice of law ; was elected city 
attorney of Detroit in 1881 and re-elected' in 1883; elected to the 
Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 

Henry Cassorte Smith, Republican, of Second District, was born 
in Canandaigua, X. Y., June 2, 1859 ; entered Adrian College ; gradu- 
ated in June, 1878 ; read law, and was admitted to the bar September 
25, 1880; appointed city attorney October 2, 1880, and assistant prose- 
cuting attorney January 1, 1881; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Washington Gardner, Republican, of Third District, was born 
in Morrow County, Ohio ; graduated from the Ohio Wesleyan Univer- 
sity 1870; studied in the School of Theology, Boston University, 
1870-71; graduated from the Albany Law School; professor in and 
public lecturer for Albion College, 1889; appointed by Governor John 
T. Rich, Secretary of State, in March, 1894, and was subsequently 
twice elected to succeed himself ; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Edward La Rue Hamilton, Republican, of Fourth District, was 
born in Xiles Township, Berrien County, Mich., December 9, 1857; 
admitted to the bar in 1884; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and 
re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

William Alden Smith, Republican, of Fifth District, was born 
at Dowagiac, Mich., May 12, 1859; received a common-school educa- 
tion; studied law, and admitted to the bar in 1883; elected to the 
Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 

Samuel W. Smith, Republican, of Sixth District, was born in the 
township of Independence, Oakland County, Mich., August 23, 1852; 
educated at Clarkston and Detroit ; graduated in the law department of 
the University of Michigan; in 1880 was elected prosecuting attorney 
of Oakland County, and re-elected in 1882 ; in 1884 elected State Sena- 
tor ; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth 
Congress, 



American History. 495 

Edgar Weeks, Eepublican, of Seventh District, was born at Mount 
Clemens, Mich., August 3, 1839; learned printer's art; studied law, 
and admitted to bar January, 1861; served' on Union side during Civil 
War, and retired with rank of captain ; resumed practice of law ; twice 
elected as district attorney; elected to Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Joseph W. Fordney, Republican, of Eighth District, was born 
in Blackford County, Ind., November 5, 1853; received a common- 
school education; came to Saginaw in June, 1869; was vice-president 
of the Saginaw Board of Trade; elected alderman in 1895, and re-elec- 
ted in 1897; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Roswell P. Bishop, Republican, of Ninth District, was born at 
Sidney, Delaware County, N. Y., January 6, 1843 ; admitted to the bar 
in May, 1875, at Ann Arbor; elected prosecuting attorney of Mason 
County, 1876, 1878 and 1884; elected to the Michigan Legislature 
1882 and' 1893; elected to the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, 
and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Rousseau 0. Crump, Republican, of Tenth District, was born in 
Pittsford, Monroe County, N. Y., May 20, 1843; and received his edu- 
cation in the Pittsford and Rochester schools ; established his first home 
in Plainwell, Mich. ; in 1892 was nominated and elected mayor of 
West Bay City, and was re-elected in 1894; elected to the Fifty- 
fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth 
Congress. 

William S. Mesick, Eepublican, of Eleventh District, was born 
August 26, 1856, at Newark, Wayne County, N. Y. ; ed'ucated in the 
common schools, Kalamazoo (Mich.) Business College, and the Uni- 
versity of Michigan ; admitted to the bar in 1881 ; elected to the Fifty- 
fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Carlos Douglas Shelden, Republican, of Twelfth District, was 
born in Walworth, Walworth County, Wis., June 10, 1840; seven 
years later he moved with his parents to Houghton County, Lake 
Superior district, Michigan ; educated in the Union School, Ypsilanti, 
Mich.; elected to the State Senate in 1894; elected: to the Fifty-fifth 
Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 



496 Memorial Volume of 

MINNESOTA SENATORS. 

Knute Nelson, Republican, of Alexandria, was born in Norway 
February 2, 1843 ; came to the United States in July, 1849 ; removed 
to Minnesota in July, 1871 ; admitted to the bar in the spring of 1867; 
member of the Assembly in the Wisconsin Legislature in 1868 and 
1869; was county attorney of Douglas County, Minn., in 1872, 1873 
and 1874; was State Senator in 1875, 1876, 1877 and 1878; member of 
the Forty-eighth, Forty-ninth ar.d' Fiftieth Congresses for the fifth dis- 
trict of Minnesota ; elected governor of Minnesota in the fall of 1892, 
and re-elected in the fall of 1894; elected United States Senator for 
Minnesota January 23, 1895, for the term commencing March 4, 1895. 

Charles A. Towne, Democrat, of Duluth, was born jSFovember 
21, 1858, in Oakland County, Mich. ; educated in common schools and 
the University of Michigan; admitted* to the bar in 1886; removed to 
Duluth in 1890; elected to the Fifty-fourth Congress as a Republican; 
left the Republican party upon the adoption of the gold standard pro- 
gramme by the St. Louis convention, in June, 1896; was appointed 
by Governor Lind to the United States Senate December 5, 1900. 

MINNESOTA REPRESENTATIVES. 

James A. Tawney, Republican, of First District, was born in 
Mount Pleasant Township, near Gettysburg, Adams County, Pa., 
January 3, 1855; elected to the State Senate of Minnesota in 1890; 
elected to the Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and' Fifty-fifth Congresses, and 
re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

James Thompson McCleary, Republican, of Second District, was 
born at Ingersoll, Ontario, February 5, 1853 ; educated at the high 
school there, and at McGill University, Montreal; in 1891 was chosen 
president of the Minnesota Educational Association; was elected to 
the Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected 
to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Joel Prescott Heatwole, Republican, of Third District, was born 
in Indiana, August 22, 1856 ; was elected to the Fifty-fourth and Fifty- 
fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congresses. 



American History. 407 

Frederick Clement Stevens, Piepiiblican, of Fourth District, was 
bnrn in Boston, Mass., January 1, 1801 ; jrraduatod from Bowdoin 
College, Brunswick, Me., in 1881; from Law School of the State Uni- 
versity of Iowa in 1884; was admitted to the bar in 1884, and com- 
menced practice in St. Paul ; was elected to the State Legislature of 
.Alinnesota in session of 1888-89 and 1890-91 ; elected to the Fifty-fifth 
Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Loren Fletcher, Eepublican, of Fifth District, was born at Mount 
A'(>rnon, Kennebec County, Me. ; educated' in public schools and Maine 
Wesleyan Seminary, Kents Hill, Me. ; in 1856 removed to Minneapolis, 
Minn.; elected to the State Legislature in 1872, and re-elected seven 
times; elected to the Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Con- 
gresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Page Morris, Republican, of Sixth District, was born June 30, 
1853, at lA'nchburg, Ya. ; educated at a private school and at William 
and Mary College and the Virginia Military Institute; in 1886 
removed from Lynchburg to Duluth; in February, 1889, elected 
municipal judge; in March, 1894, elected city attorney; in August, 
1895, appointed district judge of the eleventh judicial district of 
^linnesota ; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the 
Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Frank Marion Eddy, Republican, of Seventh District, was born 
in Pleasant Grove, Minn., April 1, 1856; elected to the Fifty-fourth 
and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

MISSISSIPPI SENATORS. 

Will Van Amberg Sullivan, Democrat, of Oxford, was born 
December 18, 1857, near Winona, Miss.; received his education at the 
University of Mississippi and at the Vanderbilt University, Xashvillc, 
Tenn. ; began the practice of law in the fall of 1875; elected to the 
Fifty-fifth Congress; was appointed and sworn in as United States 
Senator from the State of Mississippi on May 30, 1898, as successor of 
Senator E. C. Walthall, deceased; elected by the Legislature, January, 
1900, to fill out the term. 



32 



^98 Memorial Volume of 

Hernando De Soto Money, Democrat, of Carrollton, was born 
August 26, 1839, in Holmes County, Miss.; was educated at tlio Uni- 
versity of Mississippi, at Oxford, Miss.; is a lawyer and planter; 
elected to the House of Representatives in the Forty-fourth, Forty- 
fifth, Forty-sixth, Forty-seventh, Forty-eighth, Fifty-third and Fifty- 
fourth Congresses; in January, 1896, was elected to the Senate for 
the term beginning March 4, 1899; Avas appointed to the Senate, 
October 8, 1897, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Hon. J. Z. 
George on August 14, 1897 ; elected by the Legislature to fill out the 
unexpired term ending March 3, 1899, and re-elected in 1899. 

MISSISSIPPI REPRESENTATIVES. 

John M. Allen, Democrat, of First District, was born in Tisho- 
mingo County, Miss., July 8, 1847 ; graduated in law in the year 1870 
at the University of Mississippi; in 1875 was elected district attorney 
for the first judicial district of Mississippi; elected to the Forty-ninth, 
Fiftieth, Fifty-first, Fifty-second, Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty- 
fifth Congresses, and unanimously re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Con- 
gress. 

Thomas Spight, Democrat, of Second District, was born and 
reai-od on a farm in Tippah County, Miss. ; entered the La Grange 
(Tenn.) Synodical College; admitted to the bar and has practiced his 
profession since at Eipley; in Legislature from 1874 to 1880; elected 
district attorney of the third judicial district; elected for the unex- 
pired term of the Fifty-fifth Congress, July 5, and re-elected to the 
Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Thomas Clendinen Catchings, Democrat, of Third District, was 
born in Hinds County, ]\riss., January 11, 1847; entered Oakland 
College, Mississippi, where he passed into the Junior Class ; admitted 
to the bar in May, 1866; elected to the State Senate of Mississippi 
in 1875; elected attorney-general of Mississippi in November, 1877; 
renominated in August, 1881, and elected ; elected to the Forty-ninth, 
Fiftieth, Fifty-first, Fifty-second, Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty- 
fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Andrew Fuller Fox, Democrat, of Fourth District, was born April 
26, 1849, in Pickens County, Ala. ; studied law at Grenada, Miss., in 



American History. 499 

1876 and 1877; admitted to tlie bar in 1877; elected State Senator in 
1891; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 

John Sharp Williams, Democrat, of Fifth District, was born July 

30, 1854, at j\Iemphis, Tenn. ; received education at Kentucky Mili- 
tary Institiite, University of the South, University of Virginia, and 
University of Heidelberg, in Baden, Germany ; subsequently studied 
law; in December, 1878, removed to Yazoo City, Miss., where he 
engaged in the practice of his profession; elected to the Fifty-third, 
Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 

Frank Alexander McLain, Democrat, of Sixth District, was born 
January 29, 1853, and reared on a farm in Amite County, Miss.; 
graduated in the A. B. course at the University of IMississippi in June, 
1874; commenced the practice of law in Liberty, Miss., 1880 ; elected to 
the State Legislature in 1881 ; elected district attorney in 1883 ; unani- 
mously nominated by the executive committee; elected to Fifty-fifth 
Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Patrick Henry, Democrat, of Seventh District, was born in Madi- 
son County, Miss., February 12, 1843; entered Mississippi College, 
at Clinton; afterwards Madison College, at Sharon; commenced the 
practice of law at Brandon ; member of the Legislature in 1878 and 
1890 ; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 

MISSOURI SENATOES. 

George Graham Vest, Democrat, of Sweet Springs, was bom at 
Frankfort, Ky., December 6, 1830; graduated at Centre College, Ken- 
tucky, in 1848, and in the law department of Transylvania University, 
at Lexington, Ky., in 1853 ; removed the same year to Missouri; mem- 
ber of the Missouri House of Eepresentatives in 18G0-61 ; elected to the 
United States Senate; took his seat March 18, 1879; was re-elected in 
1885, 1890 and 1897. 

Francis Marion Cockrell, Democrat, of Warrensburg, was born in 
Johnson County, Mo., October 1, 1834; graduated from Chapel Hill 



500 Memorial Volume op 

College, Lafa3'ette County, Mo., in July, 1853; studied law and has 
pursued that profession; elected to the Senate, took his seat March 4, 
1875, and was re-elected four times. 

MISSOURI REPRESENTATIVES. 

James Tighlman Lloyd, Democrat, of First District, was born at 
Canton, Lewis County, Mo., August 28, 1857; graduated from Chris- 
tian University at Canton, Mo., in 1878; admitted to the bar; prose- 
cuting attorney of his county from 1889 to 1893; elected to the Fifty- 
fifth Congress June 1, 1897; re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

William W. Rucker, Democrat, of Second District, was born Feb- 
ruary 1, 1855, near Covington, Va. ; moved to Chariton County, Mo.; 
admitted to the bar in 1876; in 1886 elected prosecuting attorney of 
Chariton County; in 1892 was elected circuit judge for a term of six 
years; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

John Dougherty, Democrat, of Third District, was born in Platte 
County, Mo., February 25, 1857; educated in the public schools and 
William Jewell College; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1880; 
elected city attorney of Liberty, Mo., in 1881; elected prosecuting 
attorney of Clay County, Mo., in 1888; nominated and elected to the 
Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Charles F. Cochran, Democrat, of Fourth District, was born in 
Kirksville, Adair County, Mo., September 27, 1848; resided in Atchi- 
son, Kan., from 1860 till 1885 ; was educated in the common schools; is 
a practical printer and newspaper man and a lawyer ; served four years 
as prosecuting attorney of Atchison County, Kan., and four years as 
a member of the Missouri Senate; was elected to the Fifty-fifth Con- 
gress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress, receiving 18,294 
votes, to 16,261 for Arthur W. Brewster, Eepublican. 

William Strother Cowherd, Democrat, of Fifth District, was born 
September 1, 1860, in Jackson County, Mo.; educated at University 
of Missouri; appointed assistant prosecuting attorney of Jackson 
County in 1885; elected mayor of Kansas City in 1892; elected to the 
Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 



American History. 501 

David A. De Armond, Democrat, of Sixth District, was born in 
Blair County, Pa., March 18, 1844; educated in the common schools 
and at Williamsport Dickinson Seminary; State Senator, circuit judge, 
and Missouri Supreme Court Commissioner; elected to the Fifty-sec- 
ond, Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elec- 
ted to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

James Cooney, Democrat, of Seventh District, was born in Ireland 
in 1848, and came to the United States with his family in 1852; edu- 
cated at the State University of Missouri; engaged in the practice of 
law; in 1883, and again in 1884, was elected prosecuting attorney of 
his county ;' elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the 
Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Dorsey W. Shackleford, Democrat, of Eighth District, was bom 
August 27, 1853, in Saline County, Mo.; educated in the public schools 
of the State, and was a teacher in 1877, 1878 and 1879 during which 
period he carried on the study of law ; served as prosecuting attorney 
of Cooper County two terms, from 1882 to 1886 and from 1800 to 
1892; elected judge of the fourteenth judicial circuit of Missouri; 
resigned his judicial position to take his place in the Fifty-sixth Con- 
gress, to which he had been elected August 29, 1899. 

Champ Clark, Democrat, of Ninth District, was born March 7, 
1850, in Anderson County, Ky.; educated in Kentucky University, 
Bethany College, and Cincinnati Law School ; city attorney of Louis- 
iana and Bowling Green; served in the Fifty-third and Fifty-fifth 
Congresses, and was re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Richard Bartholdt, Republican, of Tenth District, was l)orn in 
Germany, November 2, 1853; received a classical education; elected 
to the Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and 
re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Charles Frederick Joy, Eepublican, of Eleventh District, was born 
in Morgan County, Til., December 11, 1849; in 1870 entered the aca- 
demic department of Yale College, from which he graduated Juno 25. 
1874 ; engaged in the practice of law in St. Louis in September, lS7fi ; 
elected to the Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, 
and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 



502 Memorial Volume or 

Charles Edward Pearce, Eepublican, of Twelfth District, was bora 
in Whitesboro, Oneida County, N. Y. ; educated at Fairfield Seminary 
and Union College; admitted to the bar, and began the practice of 
law in 1867; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and in 1898 was 
re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Edward Robb, Democrat, of Thirteenth District, was born at 
Brazeau, in Perry County, Mo., March 19, 1857; graduated from the 
law department of the Missouri State University in March, 1879; 
elected prosecuting attorney of Perry County in 1880, and re-elected 
in 1882; elected a member of the Legislature in 1884, and re-elected in 
1886; was appointed assistant attorney-general of the State in Jan- 
uary, 1889; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the 
Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Willard Duncan Vandiver, Democrat, of Fourteenth District, was 
born in Hardy County, Va., March 30, 1854; educated at Central Col- 
lege, Fayette, Mo.; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected 
to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Maecenas E. Benton, Democrat, of Fifteenth District, was born in 
Obion County, Tenn., January 29, 1849; received his literary educa- 
tion in two West Tennessee academies and in St. Louis University; 
graduated from the law department of Cumberland University in 
June, 1870, and immediately removed to Missouri ; elected to the 
Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

MONTANA SENATOR. 

Thomas Henry Carter, Eepublican, of Helena, was born in Scioto 
County, Ohio, October 30, 1854; received a common school education 
in Illinois; studied law and was admitted to the bar; in 1883 removed 
from Burlington, Iowa, to Helena, Mont. ; upon the admission of the 
State was elected its first Representative in Congress; in January, 
1895, w^as elected to the United States Senate by the Legislature of 
Montana for the term beginning March 4, 1895. 

MONTANA REPRESENTATIVE. 

Albert J. Campbell, Democrat, of Butte, was born at Pontiac, 
Mich., December 12, 1857; educated at the Agricultural College, Lan- 



American History. 503 

sing, Mich. ; admitted to the bar in 1881 ; removed to Montana Xovcra- 
ber 16, 1889; in 1897 was a member of the Legislature from Park 
County; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

NEBRASKA SENATORS. 

John Mellen Thurston, Republican, of Omaha, was born at Mont- 
pelier, Vt., August 31, 1847; educated in the public schools and ai 
Wayland University, Beaver Dam, Wis. ; admitted to the bar May 21, 
1869, iind in October of the same year located in Omaha; elected a 
member of the city council in 1872, city attorney of Omaha in 1874, 
and a member of the Nebraska Legislature in 1875 ; elected to United 
States Senate January 15, 1895, for the term commencing March 4, 
1895. 

William Vincent Allen, Populist, of Madison, was born in Mid- 
way, Madison County, Ohio, January 28, 1847 ; removed to Iowa in 
1857; attended the Upper Iowa University, at Fayette, for a time; 
admitted to the bar May 31, 1869; elected to the United States Senate 
February 7, 1893; elected judge November 7, 1899, for the full term 
to begin on the first Thursday in January, 1900; appointed United 
States Senator December 13, 1899, to fill the vacancy caused by the 
death of Hon. M. L. Hayward. 

NEBRASKA REPRESENTATIVES. 

Elmer Jacob Burkett, Eepublican, of First District, was born in 
Mills County, Iowa, December 1, 1867; attended Tabor College, at 
Tabor, Iowa, from which institution he graduated in June, 1890; 
entered the State University of Nebraska for a law course ; admitted to 
the bar at Lincoln in June, 1893 ; elected a member of the State Legis- 
lature in 1896 ; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

David Henry Mercer, Republican, of Second District, was born in 
Benton County, Iowa, July 9, 1857 ; entered Nebraska State Univer- 
sity in 1877 and graduated in 1880 ; moved to Omaha in 1885 ; elected 
to the Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and 
re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

John S. Robinson, Democrat, of Third District, was born at 
Wheeling, W. Va., May 4, 1856 ; received his education in the public 
schools of that city; admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of West 



504 Memorial Volume op 

Virginia in 1880; in 1884 settled at Madison, Neb.; elected county 
attorney of Madison County in 1886, and re-elected in 1890; in 1893 
elected judge of the ninth judicial district of Nebraska, and re-elected 
in 1895 ; elected to Fifty-sixth Congress in 1898. 

William Ledyard Stark, Populist, of Fourth District, was born 
in Mystic, New London County, Conn., July 29, 1853; graduated 
from the Mystic Valley Institute, at Mystic, Conn., in 1872 ; attended 
the Union College of Law, Chicago, 111. ; admitted to the bar by the 
Supreme Court of Illinois in January, 1878 ; removed to Aurora, Neb., 
in February, 1878; deputy district attorney for two years; appointed 
once and elected five times judge of the county court of Hamilton 
County, Neb. ; was elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected 
to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Roderick Dhu Sutherland, Populist, of Fifth District, was born 
April 27, 1862, at Scotch Grove, Jones County, Iowa ; admitted to the 
bar in Nuckolls County, Neb., in 1888 ; elected county attorney in 
1890, and re-elected in 1892 and 1894; elected to the Fifty-fifth Con- 
gress, as a Populist; was the unanimous nominee of the Populist, 
Democratic and Silver Republican parties for the Fifty-sixth Con- 
gress, and was re-elected. 

William Neville, Populist, of Sixth District, was born in Wash- 
ington County, 111., December 29, 1843 ; educated at McKendree 
College, Lebanon, 111. ; elected to the Illinois Legislature as a Democrat 
in the fall of 1872; moved to Nebraska in May, 1874; elected to the 
Nebraska Legislature in 1876; moved to North Platte in April, 1877; 
nominated by the Populists, Democrats and Silver Eepublicans, and 
was elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

NEVADA SENATORS. 

John Percival Jones, of the Silver party, of Gold Hill, was born 
in Herefordshire, England, in 1830; went to Nevada in 1867; elected 
to the United States Senate, as a Republican, to succeed J. W. Nye, 
Republican; took his seat March 4, 1873, and was re-elected in 1879, 
1885, 1890 and 1897. 



American History. 505 

William Morris Stewart was born in Lyons, Wayne County, 
N. Y., August 9, 1827 ; entered Yale College, remaining there till the 
winter of 184:9-50; in 1860 he removed to Virginia City, Xev. ; member 
of the Territorial Council in 1861; in 1863 was elected a member of 
the Constitutional Convention; was elected United States Senator in 
1864 and re-elected in 1869; elected to the United States Senate, as a 
Eepublican, in 1887, to succeed James G. Fair, Democrat, and took his 
seat March 4, 1887 ; was re-elected in 1893 and 1899. 

NEVADA REPRESENTATIVE. 

Francis Griffith Newlands, Eepresentative-at-Large of the Silver 
party, of Eeno, was born in Natchez, Miss., August 28, 1848; entered 
the Class of 1867 at Yale College and remained until the middle of his 
junior year; later on attended the Columbian College Law School at 
Washington, but prior to graduation was admitted to the bar by the 
Supreme Court of the District of Columbia and went to San Francisco ; 
in 1888 he became a citizen of the State of Nevada; elected to the 
Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and, having 
received his nomination from both the Silver party and the Democratic 
party, was re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

NEW HAMPSHIRE SENATORS. 

William Eaton Chandler, Republican, of Concord, was born in 
Concord, N. H., December 28, 1835; graduated at Harvard Law 
School and was admitted to the bar in 1855; a member of the New 
Hampshire House of Eepresentatives in 1862, 1863 and 1864; on 
March 9, 1865, became Solicitor and Judge- Advocate-General of the 
Navy Department; w^as appointed First Assistant Secretary of the 
Treasury June 17, 1865; appointed by President Arthur Secretary of 
the Navy April 12, 1882, and served till March 7, 1885 ; elected to the 
United States Senate June 14, 1887; re-elected June 18, 1889, and 
again January 15, 1895. 

Jacob H. Gallinger, Eepublican, of Concord, was born in Corn- 
wall, Ontario, March 28, 1837 ; studied medicine and was graduated in 
1858 : was a member of the House of Representatives of New Hamp- 



506 Memorial Volume of 

shire in 1872-73 and 1891 : member of the State Senate in 1878, 1879 
and 1880; was elected to the Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Congresses, 
and declined renomination to the Fifty-first Congress; was elected 
United States Senator to succeed Henry W. Blair, and took his seat 
March 4, 1891, and was unanimously re-elected in 1897. 

NEW HAMPSHIRE REPRESENTATIVES. 

Cyrus Adams Sulloway, Eepublican, of First District, was born at 
Grafton, JST. H., June 8, 1839 ; received a common-school and academic 
education; admitted to the bar in 1863; member of the New Hamp- 
shire House of Eepresentatives in 1872-73 and from 1887 to 1893, 
inclusive; elected to the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and 
re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Frank 6. Clarke, Republican, of Second District, was born in 
Wilton, N. H., September 10, 1850; educated at Kimball Union 
Academy, Meriden, X. H., and at Dartmouth College; admitted to 
the bar in 1876; member of the State House of Eepresentatives of 
1885; of the State Senate in 1889; re-elected to the former in 1891 ; 
was elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 

NEW JERSEY SENATORS. 

William J. Sewell, Republican, of Camden, was born in Ireland 
in 1835, and came to this country at an early age; elected State Sen- 
ator from Camden County in 1872; re-elected in 1875 and again in 
1878; while yet a member of the Legislature he was elected to the 
United States Senate in 1881 ; was again elected to the United States 
Senate in 1895. 

John Kean, Republican, of Ursino, was born at Ursino, near 
Elizabeth, N. J., December 4, 1852; entered Yale College in the Class 
of 1876; graduated at Columbia College Law School 1875; was 
admitted to the N'ew Jersey bar 1877; elected to the Forty-eighth and 
Fiftieth Congresses ; was nominated by acclamation by the Republican 
caucus, and elected to the United States Senate January 25, 1899. 



American History. 507 

NEW JERSEY REPRESENTATIVES. 

Henry C. Loudenslager, Eepublican, of First District, was bom 
in Mauricetown, Cumberland County, N. J., May 22, 1852 ; educated 
in the common schools of his county ; elected county clerk in 1882 and 
re-elected in 1887 ; elected to the Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty- 
fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

John J. Gardner, Republican, of Second District, was bom in 
Atlantic County in 1845; member of the New Jersey State Senate 
fifteen years, from 18T8 to 1893; elected to the Fifty-third, Fifty- 
fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth 
Congress. 

Benjamin F. Howell, Eepublican, of Third District, was bom in 
Cumberland County, X. J., January, 184-4; elected to the Fifty-fourtli 
and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Joshua S. Salmon, Democrat, of Fourth District, was born near 
Mount Olive, in that county, February 2, 1846 ; attended the seminaries 
at Charlotteville, N. Y., and Schooleys Mountain, N. J.; also took 
a course at the Albany Law School, and was graduated therefrom in 
1873 ; admitted as an attorney in Xew Jersey in 1875 ; elected to the 
State Legislature in 1877 ; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

James Fleming Stewart, Eepublican, of Fifth District, was born 
at Paterson, X. J., June 15, 1851 ; attended public and private schools 
in Paterson and the University of the City of Xew York, and graduated 
at the law school of the latter institution in 1870; elected to the Fifty- 
fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth 
Congress. 

Richard Wayne Parker, Eepublican, of Sixth District, was born 
August 6, 1848; graduated from Princeton College in 1867 and from 
the law school of Columbia College in 1869 ; was admitted to the bar 
of Xew Jersey in June, 1870; was a member of the House of 
Assembly of Xew Jersey in 1885 and 1886; elected to the Fifty-fourth 
and Fifty-fifth Congres"ses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Allan Langdon McDermott, Democrat, of Seventh District, was 
born in South Boston, Mass., March 30, 1854; is a lawyer by profes- 



508 Memorial Volume of 

sion; member of the State Assembly, 1880-81; member of the State 
Senate, 1899-1900; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Charles Newell Fowler, Eepnblican, of Eighth District, was born 
at Lena, 111., j\ ovember 2, 1852 ; graduated from Yale University in 
1876 and from the Chicago Law School in 1878; was elected to the 
Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 

ITEW YORK SENATORS. 

Thomas Collier Piatt, Republican, of Owego, was born in Owego, 
N. Y., July 15, 1833 ; was prepared for college at the Owego Academy ; 
was a member of the Class of 1853 of Yale College; was elected to the 
Forty-third and Forty-fourth Congresses ; elected United States Sena- 
tor January 18, 1881; elected United States Senator in 1896, and took 
his seat March 4, 1897. 

Chauncey Mitchell Depew, Republican, of Peekskill, was born in 
Peekskill, N". Y., April 23, 1834; graduated from Y^ale College in 1856, 
and in 1887 received the degree of LL. D. from his Alma Mater; read 
law with Honorable William Nelson, of Peekskill, and was admitted to 
the bar in 1858, beginning the practice of his profession the next year. 

In Public Life. — In 1861 was elected to the Assembly, and re- 
elected in 1862 ; in 1863 led the Republican campaign in New York 
as candidate for Secretary of State, and was elected by 30,000 majority ; 
refused a renomination ; was appointed Minister to Japan, and was 
confirmed by the Senate, but declined to accept the office. 

Railway Attorney. — In 1866 was appointed attorney for the 
New Y^ork and Harlem Railroad Company, and lias since continu- 
ously been identified with that and the New York Central and Hudson 
River Railroad Compan}^ the successor of the former corporation, and 
with the various railroads comprising and allied to the Vanderbilt 
system as general counsel. 

Railroad President. — Became president of the New York Central 
and Hudson River Railroad in 1885 ; resigned in 1899 to become chair- 
man of the boards of directors of the New York Central, the Lake 
Shore, the Michigan Central and the New Y^ork, Chicago and St. 
Louis Railroad companies. 



American ITrsTOUY. 509 

In Politics.— In 1875 was appointed and pcvvcd as boundary com- 
missionor, fixing the slate line witli adjoinin,^ States; in 1S72 was ean- 
didate for lientenant-.q-overnor on tli(> Liberal Uepiiblieaii, or (Ircelcy, 
ticket, but acted with the Kepubliean i)arty the next year, and has 
canvassed the State and country for tlie jiarty every year since 1872; 
in 1874 was elected regent of the State I'liiversity, and appointed one 
of the commissioners to build the State Capitol; in 1885, the United 
States Senatorship was tendered him, but his business and professional 
engagements at that time prevented acceptance; was a candidate for 
the Presidential nomination at the Eepublican National Convention at 
Chicago in 1888, and received ninety-one votes; was delegate-at-large 
to the conventions in 1892 and 189C, presenting the name of President 
Harrison for renomination to the former and that of liovernor Morton 
to the latter. 

In United States Senate. — Was elected to the United States Senate 
to succeed Edward Murphy, Jr., Democrat. His term of service 
expires March 3, 1905. 

NEW YORK REPRESENTATIVES. 

Townsend Scudder, Democrat, of First District, was born at 
Northport, Suffolk County, N. Y., July 36, 18G5; graduated from 
Columbia Law School, in the Class of 1888; admitted to the bar of 
New York in 1889; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

John J. Fitzgerald, Democrat, of Second District, was born in 
Brooklyn March 10, 1872 ; entered Manhattan College, New York City, 
and graduated therefrom ; studied law at the New York Law School ; 
and elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Edmund Hope Driggs, Democrat, of Third District, Avas born in 
Brooklyn, May 2, 1865 ; educated at Adelphi College, Brooklyn ; elected 
to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Bertram Tracy Clayton, Democrat, of Fourth District, was born 
in Clavton, Ala., October 19, 1862 ; educated at the University of Ala- 
bama and at the United States Military Academy, West Point, N. 1.; 
was elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 



510 Memorial Volume of 

Frank E. Wilson, M. D., Democrat, of Fifth District, was born in 
1857, at Roxbury, Delaware County, N. Y. ; graduated from the 
Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, in 1882 ; elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 

Mitchell May, Democrat, of Sixth District, was born July 11, 
1871 ; educated in the public schools and in the Brooklyn Polytechnic 
Institute, later entering the law school of Columbia College, graduat- 
ing in 1892; admitted to the bar in 1893; elected to the Fifty-sixth 
Congress. 

Nicholas MuUer, Democrat, of Seventh District, was born in the 
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, November 15, 1836; attended the 
Luxembourg Athenaeum; member of the State Assembly in 1875 and 
1876; member of the Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth, Forty-eighth and Forty- 
ninth Congresses, and elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Daniel J. Riordan, . Democrat, of Eighth District, was born in 
Hester street, in the Eighth Congressional District; entered Man- 
hattan College and graduated therefrom in 1890 ; elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 

Thomas J. Bradley, Democrat, of Ninth District, was born Janu- 
ary 2, 1870, in the City of New York; graduated at the College of 
the City of New York, 1887 ; graduated as a Bachelor of Laws in 1889 ; 
elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth 
Congress. 

Amos J. Cummings, Democrat, of Tenth District, was born in 
Conkling, Broome County, N. Y., May 15, 1841; received a common 
school education ; elected to the Fiftieth Congress ; declined a renomi- 
nation; elected to the Fifty-first, Fifty-second, Fifty-third, Fifty- 
fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth 
Congress. 

William Sulzer, Democrat, of Eleventh District, was born in Eliza- 
beth, N. J., March 18, 1863; educated in the public schools; admitted 
to the bar in 1884; member of the New York Legislature in 1890, 1891, 
1893, 1893 and 1894; elected to the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Con- 
gresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 



American History. 611 

George B. McClellan, Democrat, of Twelfth District, was born 
Xovembcr 23, 18(35, in Dresden, Saxon}'; graduated from Princeton 
College in 1886; is a lawyer by profession; elected to the Fifty-fourth 
and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Jefferson M. Levy, Democrat, of Thirteenth District, was born in 
jSTew York ; graduated from the University of the City of New York ; 
admitted to the bar of the State of New York ; elected to the Fifty-sixth 
Congress. 

Wiliiam Astor Clianler, Democrat, of Fourteenth District, was 
born June 11, 1867, in Newport, R. I.; educated at St. John's School, 
Sing Sing, Phillips Academy, Exeter, X. H., and Harvard University ; 
elected to the Assembly in the New York State Legislature in 1897 
from the Fifth District, and elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Jacob Ruppert, Jr., Democrat, of Fifteenth District, was born 
August 5, 1867, in the City of New York; educated at the Columbia 
Grammar School ; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

John Quincy TJnderhill, Democrat, of Sixteenth District, was born 
in New Eochelle, February 19, 1848; educated in private and public 
schools and at the College of the City of New York; elected to the 
Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Arthur Sidney Tompkins, "Eepublican, of Seventeenth District, 
was born August 2G, 1865, in Schoharie County, N. Y. ; admitted to the 
bar in 1886; served in the Assembly of 1890; elected county judge of 
Rockland County in 1893 ; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

John H. Ketcham, Republican, of Eighteenth District, was born 
at Dover, N. Y., December 31, 1832; received an academic education; 
member of the State Senate of New York in 1860 and 1861 ; elected to 
the Thirty-ninth, Fortieth, Forty-first, Forty-second, Forty-fifth, 
Forty-sixth, Forty-seventh, Forty-eighth, Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, Fifty- 
first, Fifty-second and Fifty-fifth Congresses and re-elected to the 
Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Aaron V. S. Cochrane, Republican, of Ninteenth District, was 
born March 14, 1858, at Coxsackie, N. Y.; entered Yale College in 
1875, and was graduated in 1879 ; admitted to the bar in 1881 ; elected 
district attorney of Columbia County in 1889 ; elected to the Fifty-fifth 
Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 



512 Memorial Volume of 

Martin H. Glynn, Democrat, of Twentieth District, was born in 

the town of Kinderhook, September 27, 1871 ; educated in the public 
schools and graduated from St. John's College, Fordham, at the head 
of the Class of 189-1; studied law, and is a member of the Albany 
County bar; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

John Knox Stewart, Republican, of Twenty-first District, was born 
in the town of Perth, Fulton County, X. Y., October 20, 1853 ; educated 
in the public schools and at Amsterdam Academy ; in 1889 was elected 
member of the Assembly from Montgomery County, and was elected 
to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Lucius Nathan Littauer, Republican, of Twenty-second District, 
was born January 20, 1859, in Gloversville; educated at Harvard Uni- 
versity, and was graduated in 1878; elected to the Fifty-fifth Con- 
gress; re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Louis W. Emerson, Republican, of Twenty-third District, was 
born at Warrensburg, July 25, 1857; educated at Warrensburg 
Academy; State Senator from the Nineteenth District for two terms, 
commencing 1891; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Albert Duane Shaw, Republican, of Twenty-fourth District, was 
born in the town of Lyme, Jeiferson County, N. Y., December 27, 
18-11; educated at Belleville Union Academy and' Canton University; 
elected member of the State Assembly in 1866; unanimously nomi- 
nated by the Republicans of the Twenty-fourth District to fill the 
vacancy in the Fifty-sixth Congress caused by the death of the Hon. 
C. A. Chickering, and elected. 

James Schoolcraft Sherman, Republican, of Twenty-fifth District, 
was born in Utica, X. Y., October 24, 1855; received an academic and 
collegiate education, graduating from Hamilton College in the Class 
of 1878 ; was admitted to the bar in 1880 ; elected to the Fiftieth, Fifty- 
first, Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re- 
elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

George W. Ray, Republican, of Twenty-sixth District, was born 
in Otselic, Chenango County, N. Y., February 3, 184-4; educated in the 
common schools and at Norwich Academy ; studied law, was admitted 
to practice in November, 1867; elected to the Forty-eighth Congress; 



American History. 513 

elected to the Fifty-second, Fifty-tliird, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth 
Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifiy-sixth Congress. 

Michael E. Driscoll, Republican^ ol Twenty-seventh District, was 
born in Syracuse, N. Y., February 9, 1851 ; edu^uted" m the district 
schools, Munro Collegiate Institute, at Klhridge, Onondaga County, 
and Williams College; is a lawyer, and was elected to the Fifiy-sixth 

Congress. 

Serene E. Payne, Eepublican, of Twenty-eighth District, was born 
at Hamilton, X. Y., June 26, 1843; graduated at University of Roch- 
ester, 18G4; admitted to bar 1866, and entered on practice at Auburn; 
district attorney of Cayuga County, 1873-79; elected to Forty-eighth 
and subsequent Congresses (except Fiftieth). 

Charles W. Gillet, Eepublican, of Twenty-ninth District, was born 
at Addison, K Y., November 26, 1840; graduated at Union College, 
Schenectady, N. Y., Class of 1861; elected to the Fifty-third, Fifty- 
fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth 
Congress. 

James Wolcott Wadsworth, Eepublican, of Thirtieth District, was 
born in Philadelphia, Pa., October 12, 1846; was preparing at New 
Haven, Conn., to enter Yale College, but left in the fall of 1864 and 
entered the army; was member of the Assembly in 1878 and 1879, 
and comptroller of the State of New York in 1880 and 1881; elected 
to the Forty-seventh, Forty-eighth, Fifty-second, Fifty-third, Fifty- 
fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth 
Congress. 

James M. E. 'Grady, Eepublican, of Thirty-first District, was 
born at Eochester, N. Y., March 31, 1863; educated in the Rochester 
schools; graduated from the University of Eochester, 1885; admitted 
as a lawyer in the fall of 1885 ; member of the New York State Assem- 
bly from the Second Monroe District in 1893, 1894, 1895, 1896, 1897 
and 1898 ; elected to the Ffty-sixth Congress. 

William Henry Ryan, Democrat, of Tliirty-second District, was 
born in Hopkinton, Mass., May 10, 1860; came to BulTalo in 1866; 
educated in the public schools and high school; elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 
33 



514 Memorial Volume of 

De Alva Stanwood Alexander, Eepublican, of Thirty-third Dis- 
trict, was born July 17, 1846, in Richmond", Me.; took his bachelor's 
degree from Bowdoin College in 1870; on leaving Washington, removed 
to Buffalo; in 1889 was appointed United States Attorney for the 
northern district of New York ; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and 
re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Edward B. Vreeland, Eepublican, of Thirty-fourth District, was 
born at Cuba, Allegany County, N. Y,, in 1857; received an aca- 
demic education; admitted to the practice of law in 1881; elected to 
the Fifty-sixth Congress November 7, 1899. 

NORTH CAROLINA SENATORS. 

Marion Butler, Populist, of Elliot, was born in Sampson County, 
N. C, May 20, 1863; graduated at the University of North Carolina 
in 1885; elected to the State Senate in 1890 as an Alliance-Democrat; 
elected chairman of the National Executve Committee of the People's 
party in 1896; re-entered the University Law School in May, 1899, 
and was licensed to practice law by the State Supreme Court on Sep- 
tember 26 of the same year; elected to the United States Senate to 
succeed Matt W. Eansom, Democrat, in 1895. 

Jeter Connelly Pritchard, Eepublican, of Marshall, was born in 
Jonesboro, Tenn., July 12, 1857; received* a common-school education 
at Martins Creek Academy; removed to Bakersville, Mitchell County, 
N. C, in 1873; elected to the Legislature in 1884, 1886 and 1890; 
licensed to practice law in 1887 ; in April, 1894, elected to the United 
States Senate to fill the unexpired term of the late Senator' Z. B. 
Vance; was re-elected in 1897. 

NORTH CAROLINA REPRESENTATIVES. 

John Humphrey Small, Democrat, of First District, was born 
August 29, 1858, in Washington, N. C. ; educated in the schools of 
Washington, and at Trinity College, North Carolina; licensed to nrac- 
tice law in January, 1881 ; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

George Henry White, Eepublican, of Second District, was born at 
Eosindale, Bladen County, N. C, December 18, 1852; entered Howard 
University, Washington, D. C; graduated from the eclectic depart- 



American History. 515 

ment of that institution in the Class of 1877; read law while takin;^ 
academic course; elected to the House of Representatives in IXSO and 
to the State Senate in 1S84 ; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and 
ro-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Charles Randolph Thomas, Democrat, of Third District, was l)om 
at Beaufort, N. C August 21, ISfil ; educated at the New Bern Acad- 
emy, and the University of North Carolina, graduating in 1881 ; 
studied law; admitted to the bar in October, 1882 ; member of the 
House of Eepresentatives of the North Carolina Legislature in 1887; 
elected in 1896 Democratic Presidential Elector for the third congres- 
sional district of North Carolina, and was elected to the Fifty-si.xth 
Congress. 

John Wilbur Atwater, Populist, of Fourth District, was born in 
Chatham County, N. C, December 27, 1840; received a common- 
school and academic education ; elected State Senator in 1890 as an 
Alliance-Democrat, and again in 1892 and 1896 as a Populist; elected 
to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

William Walton Kitchin, Democrat, of Fifth District, was born 
near Scotland Neck, N. C, October 9, 1866; educated at Vine Hill 
Academy and Wake Forest College, where he graduated in 1884; 
admitted to the bar in 1887 ; nominee of his party for the State Senate 
in 1892 ; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 

John Dillard Bellamy, Democrat, of Sixth District, was born in 
Wilmington, N. C, March 24, 1854; educated at the Cape Fear Mili- 
tary Academy, and at the University of Virginia, graduating in several 
of the schools in 1874, and with the degree of Bachelor of Law in 1875 ; 
State Senator from the twelfth senatorial district; elected to the 
Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Theodore F. Klnttz, Democrat, of Seventh District, was bom 
in Salisbury, Rowan County, N. C, October 4, 1848; received his edu- 
cation in schools of his native county; is a lawyer in full practice; 
was elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Romulus Z. Linney, Republican, of Eighth District, was born 
in Rutherford County, N. C, December 26, 1841; educated in the 
common schools of the county, at York's Collegiate Institute, and at 



516 Memorial Volume of 

Dr. j\rillen's school at Taylorsville ; admitted to the bar by the Supreme 
Court in 1868; elected to the State Sc'^ate in 1870, 1873, and again in 
1882; elected to the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and 
re-elected to the Fifly-sixtli Congress. 

Richmond Pearson, Republican, of Ninth District, was born at 
Richmond Hill, N. C, January 26, 1852; graduated at Princeton 
College in the Class of 1872; admitted to ii.e bar of North Carolina 
in 1874; a member of the North Carolina Legislature in 1885 and 
again in 1887; elected to the Fifty-fourth Congress as an Indepen- 
dent Protectionist and re-elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress as a Repub- 
lican; was the Republican candidate for the Fifty-sixth Congress; 
seated by the House May 10, 1900. 

NORTH DAKOTA SENATORS. 

Henry C. Hansbrough, Republican, of Devils Lake, was born in 
Randolph County, 111., January 30, 1848; received a common-school 
education; twice elected mayor of his city; nominated for Congress 
by the first Republican State convention in North Dakota, and was 
elected, receiving 14,071 majority, and was elected to the United 
States Senate January 23, 1891 ; re-elected in 1897. 

Porter James McCumber, Republican, of Wahpeton, was born in 
Illinois February 3, 1858 ; removed to Rochester, Minn., the same 
year; took the law course in the University of Michigan, graduating 
in 1880; removed to Wahpeton, N. Dak., in 1881; member of the 
Territorial Legislature in 1895 and 1897; state attorney until he 
became a candidate for Senator; elected to the United States Senate 
January 20, 1899. 

NORTH DAKOTA REPRESENTATIVE. 

Burleigh Folsom Spalding, Republican, of Fargo, was born in 
Craftsbury, Orleans County, Vt., December 3, 1853 ; educated at the 
Lyndon Literary Institute, Lyndon, Vt., and Norwich University, the 
military college of the State of Vermont, where he graduated in 1877; 
read law in Montpelier, Vt., and, after admission to the bar in March, 
1880, moved to Fargo; member of the North Dakota Constitutional 
Convention in 1899 ; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. . 



American History. 517 

OHIO SENATORS. 

Joseph Benson Foraker, Republican, of Cincinnati, was born July 
5, 184G, in Highland' County, Ohio; graduated from Cornell Univer- 
sity, Ithaca, N. Y., July 1, 1869; was admitted to the bar and entered 
upon the practice of the law at Cincinnati, Ohio, October 14, 18G9; 
elected judge of the Superior Court of Cincinnati in April, 1879; 
elected governor in 1885, and re-elected in 1887 ; elected* United States 
Senator January 15, 1896, to succeed Calvin S. Brice, and took his seat 
March 4, 1897. 

Marcus Alonzo Hanna, Republican, of Cleveland, was born in New 
Lisbon, Columbiana County, Ohio, September 24, 1837. He removed 
with his father's family to Cleveland in 1852; was educated in the 
common schools of that city and the Western Reserve College, Hudson, 
Ohio; was engaged as an employe in the wholesale grocery house of 
Hanna, Garretson & Co., his father being senior member of the firm ; 
his father died in 1862 and' he represented that interest in the firm 
until 1867, w^hen the business was closed up. 

In Lumber and Coal Business. — Then became a member of the 
firm of Rhodes & Co., engaged in the iron and coal business; at 
the expiration of ten years the title of this firm was changed to :M. A. 
Hanna & Co., which still exists ; has been identified with lake carry- 
ing business, being interested in vessels on the lakes, and in the con- 
struction of such vessels ; is president of the Union National Bank of 
Cleveland; president of the Cleveland City Railway Company; was 
director of the Union Pacific Railway Company in 1885, by appoint- 
ment of President Cleveland*; was a delegate to the National Repub- 
lican Conventions in 1884, 1888 and 1896. 

Chairman of Republican National Committee.— Was elected 
chairman of the National Republican Committee in 1896, and still 
holds that position. 

In United States Senate.— Was appointed to the United States 
Senate bv Governor Bushnell March 5, 1897, to fill the vacancy caused 
by the retirement of Hon. John Sherman ; who resigned to accept the 
position of Secretary of State in President McKinley's Cabinet; took 
his seat March 5, 1897; in January, 1898, he was elected for the short 
term ending March 4, 1899, and also for the succeeding full term. 
His term of service expires March 4, 1905. 



518 Memorial Volume of 

Public Service. — Mr. Hanna occupies one of the highest places 
in the councils of his party, and is conspicuous for those sturdy quali- 
ties which add pith and vitality to decisions and methods. He would 
eliminate all idle theories from platforms and all indirectness from 
political management, and introduce into creed, discipline, attack and 
parry only the simple, hard, sterling facts and features of deliberate 
business. As a public spokesman he has not made claim upon nor 
resort to conventional oratory, yet has proved one of the most logical 
and convincing of controversialists. 

OHIO EEPRESENTATIVES. 

William B. Shattuc, Republican, of First District, was born at 
North Hector, N. Y., June 11, 1841; removed to Ohio when eleven 
years old, and received his education in the public schools of the State ; 
in 1895 was elected one of the State Senators from Hamilton County 
to the Seventy-second General Assembly; elected to the Fifty-fifth 
Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Jacob H. Bromwell, Republican, of Second District, was born 
May 11, 1847, in Cincinnati, Ohio; received his education in the public 
schools of that city; graduated from the Cincinnati Law College in 
1870; elected to the Fifty-third Congress to fill an unexpired term; 
at the same time elected to the Fifty-fourth Congress; elected to the 
Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

John L. Brenner, Democrat, of Third District, was born in Wayne 
Township, Montgomery County, Ohio, in 1833; received a common- 
school education; attended Springfield (Ohio) Academy; elected to the 
Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Robert B. Gordon, Democrat, of Fourth District, was born in 
Auglaize County, Ohio, August 6, 1855; received his education in 
public schools at St. Marys; in 1889 was elected by the Democratic 
party as auditor of Auglaize County, in which capacity he served for 
six years ; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

David Meekison, Democrat, of Fifth District, was bom November 
14, 1849, at Dundee, Scotland, and emigrated from that country in 
1855 to Napoleon, Ohio; attended the common schools; studied law 
and was admitted to the bar in 1873; in 1881 was elected probate 



American History. 519 

judge, and served two terms; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and 
re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Seth W. Brown, Eepublican, of Sixth District, was born January 
4, 1843, near ^Yaynesville, Warren County, Ohio; educated in the 
public schools; admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court in 1873; 
elected prosecuting attorney for Warren County in 1880 and re-elected 
in 1882; elected Representative in the General Assembly in 1883 and 
re-elected in 1885; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected 
to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Walter L. Weaver, iiepublican, of Seventh District, was bom in 
Montgomery County, Ohio, April 1, 1851; educated at the public 
schools, Monroe Academy and Wittenberg College, graduating from 
the latter institution in 1870; immediately pursued the study of law, 
and was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of his native State 
in 1872 ; elected prosecuting attorney for Clark County in 1874, and 
again elected to the same office in 1880, 1883 and 1885; elected to the 
Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Archibald Lybrand, Eepublican, of Eighth District, was born in 
Tarlton, Pickaway County, Ohio, May 23, 1840; educated at the Ohio 
Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio ; studied law, and was admitted 
to the bar in 1871: appointed postmaster at Delaware December 20, 
1881, and served one term of four years; elected to the Fifty-fifth 
Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

James Harding Southard, Republican, of Ninth District, was 
born in Washington Township, Lucas County, Ohio, Januar}' 20, 1851 ; 
graduated at Cornell University in 1874; began to study law in 1875 
and was admitted to practice in 1877 ; twice elected prosecuting attor- 
ney of Lucas County, and served in that office six years ; elected to the 
Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 

Stephen Morgan, Eepublican, of Tenth District, was born in 
Jackson County, Ohio, January 25, 1854; educated in the country 
schools and at Worthington and Lebanon, Ohio; elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 

Charles Henry Grosvenor, Eepublican, of Eleventh District, was 
born at Pomfret, Windham County, Conn, September 20, 1833; 



520 Memorial Volume of 

attended a few terms in a country log school-house in Athens County, 
Ohio; taught school and studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1857 ; 
member of the State House of Eepresentatives of Ohio, 187-i-78 ; 
elected to the Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, Fifty-first, Fifty-third, Fifty- 
fourth and Fiftv'-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth 
Congress, 

John Jacob Lentz, Democrat, of Twelfth District, was born near 
St. Clairsville, Belmont County, Ohio, January 27, 1856; graduated 
from the National ISTormal University, Lebanon, Ohio, in 1877; 
attended University of Wooster one year, and graduated from Univer- 
sity of iliehigan with degree of A. B. in 1882; took both law courses 
at Columbia College, Xew York City ; admitted to the bar at Columbus 
in October, 1883; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress; re-elected to the 
Fifty-sixth Congress. 

James Albert Norton, Democrat, of Thirteenth District, was born 
in Seneca County, Ohio, on Xovember 11, 1843 ; educated in the Tiffin 
schools ; began the practice of medicine in 1867 ; admitted to the bar 
in 1879 ; served six years in the Ohio House of Eepresentatives from 
1873 to 1879; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to 
the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Winfield S. Kerr, Eepublican, of Fourteenth District, is a gradu- 
ate of the law department of the University of Michigan, and is by 
profession a lawyer; served four years in the Ohio State Senate; 
elected to the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected 
to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Henry Clay Van Voorhis, Eepublican, of Fifteenth District, was 
born in Licking Township, Muskingum County, Ohio, May 11, 1852; 
educated in the public schools and at Denison University ; was admitted 
to the bar in 1874; elected to the Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty- 
fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Joseph J. Gill, Eepublican, of Sixteenth District, was born Sep- 
tember 21, 1846, at Barnesville, Belmont County, Ohio; received an 
academic education ; graduated from the law school of the L'niversity 
of Michigan in 1868; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress November 7, 
1899, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Lorenzo Danford. 



American History. 521 

John Anderson McDowell, Democrat, of Seventeenth District, was 
born in Kilbuck, Holmes County, Ohio, September 25, 1853; gradu- 
ated from Mount Union College; has been directly interested in agri- 
cultural pursuits for several years; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, 
and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Robert Walker Tayler, Republican, of Eighteenth District, was 
born at Youngstown, Ohio, November 26, 1852; graduated at Western 
Reserve College June, 1872; in April, 1877, was admitted to the bar; 
elected prosecuting attorney of Columbiana County in 1880, re-elected 
in 1882, and served until January, 1886; elected to the Fifty-fourth 
and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Charles Dick, Republican, of Nineteenth District, was born at 
Akron, Ohio, November 3, 1858; lawv^er; elected to the Fifty-fifth 
and Fifty-sixth Congresses. 

Fremont Orestes Phillips, Republican, of Twentieth District, was 
born in Ijafayette, Medina County, Ohio, March 16, 1856; received 
his education in the Medina High School, Medina Normal School and 
Kenyon College; admitted to the bar in 1880; elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 

Theodore E. Burton, Republican, of Twenty-first District, was 
born at Jefferson, Ashtabula County, Ohio, December 20, 1851 ; studied 
at Grand River Institute, Austinburg, Ohio, at Iowa College, Grinnell, 
Iowa, and at Oberlin College, from which last institution he graduated 
in 1872 ; began the practice of law at Cleveland in 1875 ; was a member 
of the Fifty-first Congress; was elected to the Fifty-fourth and Fifty- 
fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

OREGON SENATORS. 
George W. McBride, Republican, of St. Helens, was born in Yam- 
hill County, Ore., March 13, 1854; was a student at Christian College, 
Monmouth, Ore., for two years ; stud'ied law, and was admitted to the 
bar ; elected a member of the House of Representatives of the Legisla- 
tive Assembly of Oregon in June, 1882; elected Secretary of State in 
1886 ; re-elected in 1890 and served eight years, his second term end- 
ing January 14, 1895; elected United States Senator February 23, 
1895. 



522 Memorial Volume of 

Joseph Simon, Eepublican, of. Portland, was born in 1851, and 
has resided in the city of Portland since 1857; admitted to the bar in 
1872; elected to the State Senate from Multnomah County in 1880, 
1884, 1888,1894 and 1898; elected to the United States Senate October 
8, 1898, to fill a vacancy that had existed since March 4, 1897. 

OREGON REPKESENTATIVES. 

Thomas H. Tongue, Republican, of First District, was born June 
23, 1844; removed with his parents to Washington County, Ore., 
November 23, 1859 ; graduated from Pacific University, Forest Grove, 
Ore., in June, 1868 ; was admitted to the bar September, 1870 ; in 1888 
elected to State Senate for a term of four years; elected to the Fifty- 
fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Malcomb A. Moody, Republican, of Second District, was born in 
Brownsville, Linn County, Ore., November 30, 1854; was educated 
in the public schools of Oregon and at the University of California; 
in 1889 was elected mayor of Dallas, serving two terms; on June 6, 
1898, was elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

PENNSYLVANIA SENATORS. 

Matthew Stanley Quay was born in York County, Pa., September 
30, 1833; graduated from Jefi^erson College 1850; admitted to the bar 
1854; member of Pennsylvania Legislature 1865-07; Secretary of 
Commonwealth 1879-82; elected State Treasurer 1885; elected to the 
United States Senate 1887; re-elected 1893; in 1899 the Legislature 
disagreed to his election, and he was appointed Senator by Governor 
Stone; the Senate rejected the appointment; in 1901 re-elected" to 
Senate by a favorable Legislature. 

Boies Penrose, Republican, of Philadelphia, was born in Philadel- 
phia November 1, 1860; graduated from Harvard College in 1881; 
admitted to the bar in 1883; elected to the Pennsylvania House of 
Representatives from the eighth Philadelphia district in 1884; elected 
to the Pennsylvania State Senate from the sixth Philadelphia district 
in 1886; re-elected in 1890 and again in 1894; elected to the United 
States Senate, and took his seat March 4, 1897. 



American- History. 523 

PENNSYLVANIA REPRESENTATIVES. 

Galusha A. Grow, Republican, Representalivc-at-Large, was born 
in Ashford (no\Y Eastford), Windham County, Conn., August 31, 
1823; entered Amherst College September, 1840; graduated July, 
1844; admitted to the bar of Susquehanna County April 19, 1847; 
elected to Congress in 1850, succeeding David Wilmot ; elected from 
the same district six consecutive terms; elected Speaker of the Thirty- 
seventh Congress July 4, 1861; February 20, 1894, at a special elec- 
tion to fill the vacancy in the Fifty-third Congress caused by the death 
of William Lilly, was elected Congressman-at-Large ; re-elected to the 
Fiftj'-fourth, Fifty-fifth and Fifty-sixth Congress as Representative- 
at-Large. 

S. A. Davenport, Republican, Representative-at-Large, was bom 
January 15, 1834, in Schuyler County, near Watkins, in the State of 
New York; educated at the Erie Academy, read law, and graduated at 
the Harvard Law University in 1855; in 1860 was elected district 
attorney for the county of Erie; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress 
from the State at large, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Henry H. Bingham, Republican, of First District, was born in 
Philadelphia, Pa., December 4, 1841; graduated at Jefferson College 
in 1862; studied law; appointed postmaster of Philadelphia in March, 
1867; elected to the Forty-sixth, Forty-seventh, Forty-eighth, Forty- 
ninth, Fiftieth, Fifty-first, Fifty-second, Fifty-third. Fifty-fourth 
and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth and Fifty- 
seventh Congresses. 

Robert Adams, Jr., Republican, of Second District, was born in 
Philadelphia, Pa., February 26, 1849; graduated at the University 
of Pennsylvania in 1869; studied and practiced law for five years; 
graduated in 1884 from the Wharton School of Economy and Finance 
of the University of Pennsylvania ; appointed United States Mini.'Jter 
to Brazil April 1, 1889; elected to the Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and 
Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

William McAleer, Democrat, of Third District, was born in 
County Tyrone, Ireland, January 6, 1838; emigrated with his parents 
to Philadelphia in 1851; attended public and private schools; 



524 Memorial Volume of 

elected to the State Senate in 1886 for a term of four years; elected to 
the Fifty-second, Fifty-third and' Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected 
to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

James Rankin Young, Republican, of Fourth District, was born 
in Philadelphia March 10, 1847 ; educated in the public schools of his 
native city, entering the Central High School in 1868; chief executive 
clerk of the United States Senate from December, 1883, to April, 1893 ; 
elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 

Edward Morrell, Eepublican, of Fifth District, was born at New- 
port, E. I., August 7, 1862; studied law at the University of Penn- 
sylvania; elected to the Select Council of Philadelphia in 1891, serv- 
ing three years; nominated by the Eepublican convention to fill the 
vacancy in the Fifty-sixth Congress caused by the death of the late 
Honorable A. C. Harmer, and elected. 

Thomas S. Butler, Eepublican, of Sixth District, was born in 
Uwchlan, Chester County, Pa., November 4, 1855; educated at the 
public schools, and' also at Wyers' and Worrall's academies, and at the 
normal school at West Chester; is a member of the Chester County 
bar; was elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the 
Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Irving Price Wanger, Eepublican, of Seventh District, was born 
in North Coventry, Chester County, Pa., March 5, 1853 ; admitted to 
the bar December 18, 1875; was elected district attorney of Mont- 
gomery County in 1880, and again in 1886 ; elected to the Fifty-third, 
Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 

Laird Howard Barber, Democrat, of Eighth District, was born 
near Mifilinburg, Union County, Pa., October 25, 1848; graduated 
from Lafayette in 1871; admitted to the bar June 20, 1881; elected 
to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Henry Dickinson Green, Democrat, of Ninth District was born 
at Eeading, Berks Count}-, Pa., May 3, 1857 ; educated at Yale Uni- 
versity, graduating from the latter with the class of 1877; admitted 
to practice law at the Berks County bar in November, 1879, to the 



A 



American History. 625 

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania March 4, 1890, and to the Supreme 
Court of the United States March' 19, 1900; member of the Senate of 
Pennsylvania from 1889 to 1896; elected to the Fifty-sixth Con<jress 
jSTovember 7, 1899, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of the Hon. 
Daniel Ermentrout. 

Marriott Brosius, Eepublican, oi Tenth District, was born in 
Colerain Township, Lancaster County, Pa., March 7, 18-43; received a 
common-school and academic education; admitted to the bar in 18G8; 
elected to the Fifty-first, Fifty-second, Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and 
Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth and Fifty- 
seventh Congresses; died in 1901. 

William Coimell, Eepublican, of Eleventh District, was born at 
Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, September 10, 1837; when he was yet 
young, his parents moved to what is now Hazleton, Luzerne County, 
Pa. ; delegate to the Eepublican Xational Convention of 189(5 ; member 
of the Pennsylvania Eepublican committee; elected to the Fifty-fifth 
Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Stanley Woodward Davenport, Democrat, of Twelfth District, 
was born at Plymouih, Luzerne County, Pa., July 21, 1861; graduated 
from the Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., in 1884; admitted 
to the Luzerne County bar in June, 1890; elected register of wills of 
Luzerne County in 1893 ; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

James W. Ryan, Democrat, of Thirteenth District, was born in 
Norwegian Township, Schuylkill County, Pa., October 16, 1858; 
attended the high school of Frackville; admitted to the bar in 1884; 
elected district attorney in 1892, and served until January, 1896; 
nominated for Congress by acclamation, and elected to the Fifty-sixth 
Congress. 

Marlin Edgar Olmsted, Eepublican, of Fourteenth District, was 
born in Ulysses Township, Potter County, Pa. ; educated in common 
schools and Coudersport Academy; admitted to the bar of Daupliin 
County November 25, 1878, to the bar of the Supreme Court of Penn- 
sylvania May 16, 1881, and to the bar of the Supreme Court of the 
United States November 12, 1884; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, 
and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 



526 Memorial Volume of 

Charles Fredrick Wright, Republican, of Fifteenth District, was 
born in Forest Lake Township, Susquehanna County, Pa. ; delegate 
to the St. Louis Republican Convention in 189G; elected' to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 

Horace B. Packer, Republican, of Sixteenth District, was born 
in Wellsboro, Pa. ; educated at Wellsboro Academy and Alfred Uni- 
versity, New York; admitted to the bar; elected district attorney for 
three years, and served one year by appointment just prior to his 
election; in 1884 elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representa- 
tives, and re-elected in 1886; in 1888 elected to the State Senate; 
elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth 
Congress. 

Rufiis King' Polk, Democrat, of Seventeenth District, was born 
in Maury County, Tenn., August 23, 1866; educated at Webb's Acad- 
emy, Culleoka, Tenn., and Lehigh University, Pa. ; elected to the 
Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Thaddeus Maclay Mahon, Republican, of Eighteenth District, 
was born at Greenvillage, Franklin County, Pa., in 1840 ; received a 
common-school and academic education; admitted to practice in 1871 ; 
was a member of Pennsylvania Legislature in 1870, 1871 and 1872; 
elected to the Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, 
and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Edward Banner Ziegler, Democrat, of Nineteenth District, was 
born March 3, 1844, in Bedford, Bedford County, Pa. ; educated at 
Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg, and was graduated with the Class 
of 1865; admitted a member of the York County bar on November 4, 
1868; on November 2, 1880, was elected district attorney of York 
County; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Joseph Earlston Thropp, Republican, of Twentieth District, was 
born at Valley Forge, Chester County, Pa. ; graduated from the Poly- 
technic College of the State of Pennsylvania ; entered the iron business 
in 1870; in 1898 was nominated' and elected to the Fifty-sixth Con- 
gress. 

Summers Melville Jack, Republican, of Twenty-first District, was 
born at Summersville, Jefferson County, Pa., July 18, 1852; educated 
in the public and private schools of Jefi'erson County, and in the Indi- 



American History. 527 

ana Normal School of reniis3lvaiiia ; adiiiittcd to l)ar Scptcniljcr 10, 
1870; lias been actively engaged in law practice since admission to 
the bar; chairman of the Congressional conference for the twcntv- 
iirst district in 1896; was elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

John Dalzell, Eepublican, of Twenty-second District, was born in 
ISTew York City April 19, 1845 ; removed to Pittsburg in 1847 ; received 
a common-school and collegiate education, graduating from Yale Col- 
lege in the Class of 18G5; studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 
February, 1807; elected to the Fiftieth Congress; was elected to tbe 
Fifty-first, Fifty-second, Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Con- 
gresses, and re-elected' to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

William H. Graham, Republican, of Twenty-third District, was 
born in Allegheny, Pa., August 3, 1844; attended the public schools 
of that city; served three successive terms as recorder of deeds 
of Allegheny County; represented his city during four sessions of 
the Pennsylvania Legislature; elected' to the Fifty-fifth Congress at 
a special election held November 29, 1898; re-elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 

Ernest F. Acheson, Republican, of Twenty-fourth District, was 
born in Washington, Pa., September 19, 1855; educated at Washington 
and Jefferson College; admitted to the bar in 1877; elected to the 
Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 

Joseph B. Showalter, Republican, of Twenty-fifth District, was 
born in Fayette County, Pa., February 11, 1851 ; received a public 
school and academic education; practiced medicine for a number of 
years at Chicora, Pa.; elected to the Pennsylvania House of Repre- 
sentatives in 1886 as a Republican; elected to the Pennsylvania State 
Senate in 1888; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to 
the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Athelston Gaston, Democrat, of Twenty-sixth District, was born 
in Castile, K. Y., April 24, 1838; when sixteen years of age his parents 
moved to Crawford County, Pa. ; received a common-school education ; 
elected mayor of the city of Meadville in 1891; re-elected in 1892; 
elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 



528 Memorial Volume of ^ 

Joseph Crocker Sibley, Democrat, of Twenty-seventh District, 
was born in Friendship, Allegany Count}', N. Y., February 18, 1850; 
educated in the common schools and at Springville and Friendship 
academies; elected to represent the twenty-sixth district in the Fifty- 
third Congress; in 1898 was tendered the nomination by both the 
twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh districts, accepting in the twenty- 
seventh; was elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

James Knox Polk Hall, Democrat, of Twenty-eighth District, 
was born September 30, 1844, at Milesburg, Centre County, Pa. ; edu- 
cated at Pittsburg, Pa.; was admitted to the bar November 8, 1866; 
elected district attorney of Elk County in 1867; re-elected in 1870 
and in 1873; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

RHODE ISLAND SENATORS. 

George Peabody Wetmore, Republican, of Newport, was born 
during a visit of his parents abroad, at London, England, August 2, 
1846; graduated from Yale College in 1867; studied law at Columbia 
College Law School, and was graduated in 1869 ; admitted to the bar 
of Rhode Island and of New York in 1869 ; governor of Rhode Island 
in 1885-86, 1886-87; elected to the United States Senate to succeed 
Nathan F. Dixon June 13, 1894, receiving the unanimous vote of the 
General Assembly in the Senate, House and Joint Assembly, and 
re-elected in 1900. 

Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich, Republican, of Providence, was born 
at Foster, R. I., November 6, 1841; received an academic education; 
was a member of the Rhode Island General Assembly in 1875-76; 
elected to the House of Representatives of the Forty-sixth Congress, 
and re-elected to the Forty-seventh Congress; was elected to the United 
States Senate to succeed Ambrose E. Burnside, Republican took his 
seat December 5, 1881, and was re-elected in 1886, in 1892 and in 
1898, 

RHODE ISLAND REPRESENTATIVES. 

Melville Bull, Republican, of First District, was born at New- 
port, R. I., in 1854; graduated at Harvard College in 1877; represent- 
ative from Middletown in State Legislature 1883-1885, Senator 1885 
92, lieutenant-governor 1892-94; elected to the Fifty-fourth and Fifty- 
fifth Coiigresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 



4 



American History. 529 

Adin Ballou Capron, Eepublican, of Second District, was born in 
Meudon, Mass., January 9, 1841; educated at Woonsocket High School 
and Westbrook Seminary, near Portland, Me.; is engaged in milling 
and dealing in grain; elected to Khode Island Assembly in 1887, and 
re-elected in 1888, 1889, 1890, 1891 and 1893; was Speaker of the 
House in' 1891 and 1892; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and 
re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

SOUTH CAROLINA SENATORS. 

Benjamin Ryan Tillman, Democrat, of Trenton, was born in 
Edgefield County, S. C, August 11, 1847; received an academic edu- 
cation; elected governor in 1890; re-elected in 1892; elected by the 
General Assembly to United States Senate by a vote of 131 to 21 for 
Butler. His term of service expired March 3, 1901. 

John Lowndes McLaurin, Democrat, of Marlboro County, was 
born at Eeed Biuft', that county, May 9, 1860; was educated at the vil- 
lage school of Bennettsville, at Bethel Military Academy, near War- 
renton, A^a., at Swarthmore College, Philadelphia, at the Carolir.a 
Military Institute and at the University of Virginia; studied law at 
the last-named school, and was admitted to the bar in 1882; in 1890 
elected to the General Assembly of South Carolina; elected attorney- 
general of that State the following year; elected to the Fifty-second, 
Fifty-third and Fifty-fourth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty- 
fifth Congress; appointed United States Senator May 27, 1897, to fill 
the vacancy; elected to fill out the unexpired term ending March 3, 
1903. 

SOUTH CAROLINA REPRESENTATIVES. 

William Elliott, Democrat, of First District, was born in Beau- 
fort, S. C, September 3, 1838 ; educated at Beaufort College, Harvard^ 
University and the University of Virginia; admitted to the bar at 
Charleston in April, 1861 ; in 1866 electecT a member of the South 
Carolina Legislature ; elected to the Fiftieth, Fifty-first, Fifty-second, 
Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 

William Jasper Talbert, Democrat, of Second District, was bom 
in Edgefield County, S. C, in 1846 ; educated in the schools of his 
34 



530 Memorial Volume of 

native county and Due West Academy, Abbeville; in 1880 was elected 
to the Legislature, and re-elected in 1882 ; elected to the State Senate 
in 1884; elected to the Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Con- 
gresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Asbury C. Latimer, Democrat, of Third District, was born July 
31, 1851, near Lowndesville, Abbeville County, S. C; educated in the 
common schools; elected to the Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty- 
fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Stanyarne Wilson, Democrat, of Fourth District, was born 1859 
in Yorkville, S. C. ; educated at Kings Mountain Military School, 
South Carolina, and Washington and Lee University, Virginia; is a 
lawyer; was elected to the Legislature in 1884, to the Senate in 1892 ; 
elected to the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected 
to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

David Edward Finley, Democrat, of Fifth District, was born at 
Trenton, Ark., February 28, 1861 ; since September, 1865, has resided 
in York County, S. C, ; was educated in the schools at Rock Hill and 
Ebenezer, S. C, and the South Carolina College ; is a lawyer ; was a 
member of the House of Eepresentatives of South Carolina in 1890- 
91, and of the State Senate 1892-96; elected to the Fifty-sixth Con- 
gress without opposition. 

James Norton, Democrat, of Sixth District, was born October 8, 
1843, in Marion County, S. C. ; received an academic education ; 
served as a member of the House of Representatives of South Carolina 
1886-87 and 1890-91; was elected comptroller-general of the State in 
1894, and re-elected in 1896; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and 
re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

J. William Stokes, Democrat, of Seventh District, was brought 
up to farm life; graduated from Washington and Lee University, 
Virginia, in 1876 ; graduated in medicine from Vanderbilt University, 
Tennessee; elected to the State Senate in 1890; elected to the Fifty- 
fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth 
Congress. 

SOUTH DAKOTA SENATORS. 

Richard F. Pettigrew, of Sioux Falls, was born at Ludlow, Vt., 
July, 1848; removed with his parents to Evansville, Rock County, 



American History. 531 

Wis., in 185-i; entered Beloit College in 186G, where lie remained two 
years; member of the law class of 1870, University of Wisconsin; 
w-ent to Dakota in July, 1869; opened a law office in 1872; elected to 
the Dakota Legislature in 1877, and re-elected in 1879; elected to 
the Forty-seventh Congress as delegate from Dakota Territory; was 
elected to the Territorial Council of 1884-85; elected United States 
Senator October 16, 1889; re-elected in 1895. 

James Henderson Kyle, Republican, of Aberdeen, was born near 
Xenia, Ohio, February 24, 1854; entered Oberlin College in 1873, and 
graduated in 1878 ; prepared for admission to the bar, but afterwards 
entered Western Theological Seminary, Allegheny, Pa., graduating in 
1882; elected to the State Senate as an Independent in 1890; elected 
to the United States Senate; took his seat March 4, 1891 ; re-elected in 
1897. 

SOUTH DAKOTA REPRESENTATIVES. 

Robert Jackson Gamble, Republican, of Yankton, was born near 
Akron, N. Y., February 7, 1851; received a common-school and collegi- 
ate education, graduating from Lawrence University, Appleton, Wis., 
in 1874; is a lawyer by profession; located at Yankton in November, 
1875, where he has since been engaged in the practice; district attorney 
for the second judicial district of the Territory in 1880; State Senator 
in 1885; member of the Fifty-fourth Congress; elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 

Charles H. Burke, Republican, of Pierre, Hughes County, was 
born April 1, 1861, in Genesee County, N. Y.; was educated in the 
public schools of Batavia, N. Y. ; removed to Dakota Territory in 1882 ; 
admitted to the bar in 1886 ; elecw^d to the Legislature in 1894, and 
re-elected in 1896; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

TENNESSEE SENATORS. 

Thomas B. Turley, Democrat, of Memphis, was born in Memphis 
April 5, 1845 ; graduated from the law department of the University 
of Virginia in 1867; appointed to the United States Senate. July 20, 
1897, to suceed* Senator Isham G. Harris, deceased; elected bv the 
Legislature to fill out the unexpired term, and sworn in February 14, 
1898. 



532 Memorial Volume of 

William B. Bate, Democrat, of jSTashville, was born near Castalian 
Springs, Tenn., and received an academic education; elected to the 
Tennessee Legislature; graduated from the Lebanon Law School in 
1852 and entered upon the practice; in 1854 elected attorney-general 
for the Nashville district for six years; in 1882 was elected governor 
of Tennessee, and re-elected in 1884; in January, 1887, was elected 
to the United States Senate; re-elected in 1893, and again in 1899. 

TENNESSEE REPRESENTATIVES. 

Walter Preston Brownlow, Eepublican, of First District, was 
born in Abingdon, Va. ; he attended common schools for three years; 
elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth 
Congress, as a Protectionist Eepublican. 

Henry Richard Gibson, Eepublican, of Second District, was born 
on Kent Island, Queen Anne County, Md., in 1837; educated at Blad- 
ensburg, Md. and at Hobart College, Geneva, IST. Y. ; entered the 
Albany (N. Y.) Law School; in December, 1865, was licensed to prac- 
tice law by the Supreme Court of New York, at Albany ; in January, 
1866, removed to Knoxville, Tenn., and there began the practice of 
law; elected a member of the State Senate; elected a member of the 
Tennessee House of Eepresentatives ; in 1886 was elected chancellor of 
the second chancery division of Tennessee ; elected to the Fifty-fourth 
and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

John Austin Moon, Democrat, of Third District, was born in 
Albemarle County, Va., April 22, 1855, moved to Chattanooga in 
January, 1870; educated at King College, Tennessee; admitted to the 
bar in Alabama and Tennessee in March, 1874; elected attorney for 
the city of Chattanooga for 1881-82; elected circuit judge; re-elected 
in 1894 for a term of eight years; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, 
and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Charles Edward Snodgrass, Democrat, of Fourth District, was 
born in Sparta, White County, Tenn., December 28, 1866; educated 
in the common schools of Tennessee ; studied law at Sparta, Tenn. ; 
was admitted to the bar; commenced practice of law at Crossville, 
Tenn., in the year 1888 ; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 



American History. 533 

James Daniel Richardson, Democrat, of Fifth District, was born 
in Eutherford County, Tenn , March 10, 1843; educated at Franklin 
College ; entered Confederate Army at eighteen years of age, and served 
throughout the war; admitted to Murfreesboro bar January 1, ISGT; 
elected to Legislature in October, 1871, and became Speaker of the 
House; elected to State Senate 1873-74; elected to Forty-ninth and 
subsequent Congresses up to Fifty-seventh, and became leader of the 
Democratic party on the floor of the House. 

John Wesley Gaines, Democrat, of Sixth District, was born near 
iS^ashville August 24, 1861; graduated in medicine from the Univer- 
sity of Nashville, and Vanderbilt University in 1882; admitted to 
the bar in 1884; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress; re-elected to the 
Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Nicholas Nichols Cox, Democrat, of Seventh District, was born 
in Bedford County, Tenn., January 6, 1837; educated in the common 
schools ; studied law at the law school of Lebanon, Tenn. ; elected 
to the Fifty-second, Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Con- 
gresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Thetus Willrette Sims, Democrat, of Eighth District, was born 
April 25, 1852, in Wayne County, Tenn.; educated at Savannah Col- 
lege, Tennessee; graduated in the law department of the Cumberland 
University at Lebanon, Tenn., June, 1876; elected to the Fifty-fifth 
Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Rice Alexander Pierce, Democrat, of Ninth District, was born 
on a farm in Weakley County, Tenn., July 3, 1849; two and one-half 
years at the London High School, London. Ontario; read law at 
Halifax, N. C. ; licensed to practice by the Supreme Court of North 
Carolina in July, 1868; elected to the Forty-eighth, Fifty-first, Fifty- 
second and Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth 
Congress. 

Edward Ward Carmack, Democrat, of Tenth District, was born 
near Castalian Springs, Sumner County, Tenn., November 5, 1858; 
received an academic education; studied law, and began practicing 
at Columbia, Tenn. ; elected to the Legislature as a Democrat in 1SS4 : 
elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth 
Congress. 



534 Memorial Volume of 

TEXAS SENATORS. 

Horace Chilton, Democrat, of Tyler, was born in Smith County, 
Tex., December 29, 1853; is an attorney-at-law ; appointed United 
States Senator by Governor Hogg, to fill the vacancy created by the 
resignation of Hon. John H. Eeagan, in April, 1891; became a candi- 
date again in 1894; elected to the United States Senate without prac- 
tical opposition, as the successor of Hon. Eichard Coke. 

Charles A. Culberson, Democrat, of Dallas, was born in Dade- 
ville, Tallapoosa County, Ala., June 10, 1855; removed with his 
parents from Alabama to Texas in 1856 ; graduated from the Virginia 
Military Institute, Lexington, in the Class of 1874; studied law at 
University of Virginia in 1876-77; elected attorney-general of Texas 
in 1890 and 1892; elected governor of Texas in 1894 and 1896; 
chosen United States Senator January 25, 1899. 

TEXAS REPRESENTATIVES. 

Thomas H. Ball, Democrat, of First District, was born January 
14, 1859, at Huntsville, Walker County, Tex. ; educated in private 
schools, and Austin College; served three terms as mayor of Hunts- 
ville, and retired to begin the practice of law; attended lectures at 
the University of Virginia ; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and 
re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Sam Bronson Cooper, Democrat, of Second District, was born in 
Caldwell County, Ky., May 30, 1850; removed with his parents to 
Texas the same year; in 1871 read law; in January, 1872, obtained 
license to practice law; in 1880 elected to the State Senate from the 
first Senatorial district; re-elected in 1882; elected to the Fifty-third, 
Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 

Reese Calhoun De Graffenreid, Democrat, of Third District, 
was born in Franklin, Tenn., in the year 1859 ; went to the University 
of Tennessee, and graduated after taking the four years' course; 
graduated from the Lebanon Law School; moved to Texas; in 1883 
resumed the practice of his profession at Longview, Tex. ; elected 
county attorney; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to 
the Fifty-sixth Congress. 



American History. 535 

John Levi Sheppard, Democrat, of Fourth District, was born 
April 13, 1852, at Blufton, Chambers County, Ala. ; romoved to Texas 
about 1858; studied law under his own tutelage, and began practicing 
at Daingerfield, Morris County, in 1879; elected district attorney of 
the fifth judicial district ; elected to Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Joseph Welden Bailey, Democrat, of Fifth District, was born in 
Copiah County, Miss., October 6, 1863; was admitted to tbe bar 
in 1883; removed to Texas in 1885; elected to the Fifty-second, Fifty- 
third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the 
Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Robert Emmet Burke, Democrat, of Sixth District, was born in 
Tallapoosa County, Ala., August 1, 1847; removed to Texas in 1866; 
admitted to the bar in November, 1870; elected county Judge in 1878, 
serving three consecutive terms; elected district judge in 1888, and 
was re-elected in 1892; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re- 
elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Robert Lee Henry, Democrat, of Seventh District, was born May 
12, 1864, in Linden, Cass County, Tex. ; graduated from the South- 
western University of Texas in June, 1885 ; read law, and in January, 
1886, was admitted to the bar; elected mayor of Texarkana in 1890; 
appointed assistant attorney-general October 3, 1893 ; elected to the 
Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Samuel W. T. Lanham, Democrat, of Eighth District, was born 
July 4, 1846, in Spartanburg district. South Carolina; elected to the 
Forty-eighth Congress from the eleventh district, and was re-elected 
to the Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, Fifty-first and Fifty-second Congresses; 
elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth 
Congress. 

Albert Sidney Burleson, Democrat, of Ninth District, was born 

June 7, 1863, at San Marcos, Tex.; educated at Agricultural and 
Mechanical College of Texas, Baylor University, of Waco, and Univer- 
sity of Texas; admitted to the bar in 1884; assistant city attorney of 
Austin 1885, 1886. 1887, 1888, 1889 and 1890; elected to the Fifty- 
sixth Congress. 



536 Memorial Volume of 

R. B. Hawley, Republican, of Tenth District, was born in Mem- 
phis, Tenn., in 1850; became a citizen of Texas in 1875; elected to the 
Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Rudolph Kleberg-, Democrat, of Eleventh District, was born June 
36, 1847, in Austin County, Tex.; received a liberal education at 
private schools; studied law in San Antonio, Tex., and was admitted 
to the bar in 1873 ; elected to the State Senate as a Democrat in the 
fall of 1883; was appointed United States attorney for the western 
district of Texas in the fall of 1885 ; elected to the Fifty-fifth Con- 
gress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

James L. Slayden, Democrat, of Twelfth District, was born June 
1, 1853, in Graves County, Ky. ; was educated at the country schools 
of his native State and at Washington and Lee University, Virginia ; 
member of the Twenty-third Legislature of Texas in 1893 ; elected to 
the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

John H. Stephens, Democrat, of Thirteenth District, was born in 
Shelby County, Tex.; educated at Mansfield, Tarrant County, Tex.; 
graduated from the law department of Cumberland University, Leb- 
anon, Tenn., in June, 1873; served as State Senator in the Twenty- 
first and Twenty-second Legislatures of Texas; was elected to the 
Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

UTAH SENATOR. 

Joseph Lafayette Rawlins, Democrat, of Salt Lake City, was born 
in Salt Lake County, Utah, March 38, 1850; completed a classical 
course in the University of Indiana; admitted to the bar in 1875; 
elected to the Fifty-third Congress as delegate on the Democratic 
ticket ; defeated for the Fifty-fourth Congress by Hon. Frank J. Can- 
non; elected to the United States Senate in 1897. 

UTAH REPRESENTATIVE. 

William Henry King, Democrat, Eepresentative-at-Large, was 
born in Fillmore City, Utah, in 1863; graduated from the University 
of Michigan, and is a practicing attorney; three times a member of 
the Legislature; elected by the Democrats in 1896 to the Fifty-fifth 
Congress; re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 



American History. 537 

VERMONT SENATORS. 

William Paul Dilling^ham, Republican, of Waterbury, was born at 
Waterbury, Vt., December 12, 1843; received an academic education, 
and was admitted to the bar in 1867; member of the Vermont House 
of Eepresentatives in 1876 and again in 1884; State Senator from 
Washington County in 1878 and again in 1880; governor of Vermont 
from 1888 to 1890. October 18, 1900, was elected United States 
Senator from Vermont. 

Redfield Proctor, Republican, of Proctor, was born at Proctors- 
ville, Vt., June 1, 1831; graduated at Dartmouth College and at the 
Albany Law School; member of the Vermont House of Representa- 
tives in 1867, 1868 and 1888; member of the State Senate and presi- 
dent pro tempore of that body in 1874 and 1875; lieutenant-governor 
from 1876 to 1878, and governor from 1878 to 1880; October 18, 1892, 
elected United States Senator; elected October 18, 1898, to succeed 
himself for the term beginning March 4, 1899. 

VERMONT REPRESENTATIVES. 

H. Henry Powers, Republican, of First District, was born at Mor- 
ristown, Lamoille County, Vt., May 29, 1835; graduated from the 
University of Vermont in 1855; admitted to the bar in 1858; member 
of the House of Representatives of Vermont in 1858; member of 
the State Senate in 1873-73; judge of the Supreme Court of Ver- 
mont from December, 1874, to December, 1890; elected to the Fifty- 
second, Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and 
re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

William Wallace Grout, Republican, of Second District, was born 
at Compton, Province of Quebec, of American parents. May 24, 183G ; 
received an academic education and graduated at Poughkeepsie Law 
School in 1857 ; admitted to the bar in December of same year ; state's 
attorney 1865-66 ; member of Vermont House of Representatives in 
1868, 1869, 1870 an 1874, and of the Senate in 1876; elected to the 
Forty-seventh, Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, Fifty-first, Fifty-second, Fifty- 
third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the 
Fifty-sixth Congress. 



538 Memoeial Volume op 



VIRGINIA SENATORS. 



Thomas Staples Martin, Democrat, of Albemarle County, was 
born in Scottsville, Albemarle County, July 29, 1847 ; educated at the 
Virginia Military Institute and at the University of Virginia; 
licensed to practice law in the fall of 1869 ; December 19, 1893, was 
elected a Senator from Virginia for the term commencing March 4, 
1895, to succeed Hon. Eppa Hunton, and then elected by the Legisla- 
ture to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Hon. John S. Barbour. 

John Warwick Daniel, Democrat, of Lynchburg, Campbell 
County; born there September 5, 1842; attended private schools and 
Lynchburg College; studied law at University of Virginia, 1865-66; 
author of "Daniel on Attachments" and "Daniel on Negotiable Instru- 
ments"; member of Virginia House of Delegates, 1869 to 1872; mem- 
ber of State Senate from 1875 to 1881 ; elected to House of Eepresen- 
tatives of Forty-ninth Congress in 1884; elected to United States 
Senate, and took his seat March 4, 1887; re-elected in December, 1891, 
and for the third term December, 1897. 

VIRGINIA REPRESENTATIVES. 

William Atkinson Jones, Democrat, of First District, was born in 
Warsaw, Va., March 21, 1849 ; entered the academic department of the 
University of Virginia, from which institution he was graduated in 
1870: was admitted to the bar in July, 1870; elected to the Fifty- 
second, Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and 
re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Second District not represented in Fifty-sixth .Congress. 

John Lamb, Democrat, of Third District, was born in Sussex 
County, Va., June 12, 1840; after the war returned to his native 
county ; was soon elected sheriff of his county, and subsequently served 
his people as treasurer, surveyor, and chairman of the County Demo- 
cratic Committee; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected 
to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Francis Rives Lassiter, Democrat, of Fourth District, was born 
at Petersburg, Va., February 18, 1866; graduated in several academic 
schools, University of Virginia, 1883-84; admitted to the Suffolk bar, 



Ameeican/ HiSTonY. 539 

Boston, Mass., 1887, and to the Virginia bar in 1888; elected city 
attorney of Petersburg in 1888 and re-elected in 1890 and in 1892; 
elected at a special election held April 19, 1900, to fill the vacancy in 
the Fifty-sixth Congress caused by the death of Hon. Sydney P. Epes. 

Claude A. Swanson, Democrat, of Fifth District, was born at 
Swansonville, Pittsylvania County, Ya., March 31, 1862; matriculated 
at Eandolph-Macon College, Ashland, Va., graduating in 1885 ; studied 
law at the University of Virginia, graduating in 1886; elected to the 
Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-iifth Congresses, and re-elected to 
the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Peter Johnston Otey, Democrat, of Sixth District, was born in 
Lynchburg December 22, 1840; educated at the Virginia ]\Iilitary 
Institute; elected to the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and 
re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

James Hay, Democrat, of Seventh District, was elected to the 
Fify-fifth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress, receiv- 
ing 9,851 votes, to 2,931 for D. C. O'Flaherty, Gold Democrat. 

John Franklin Rixey, Democrat, of Eighth District, was born in 
Culpeper County, Va., August 1, 1854; was educated in the common 
schools, Bethel Academy and the University of Virginia; is a lawyer 
and farmer ; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress ; was re-elected to the 
Fifty-sixth Congress. 

William Francis Rhea, Democrat, of isTinth District, was liorn 
in Washington County, Va. ; attended college about three years, then 
studied law and was admitted to the bar; elected to the State Senate; 
served four years and was elected judge of the city court of Bristol ; 
elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Julian Minor ftuarles, Democrat, of Tenth District, was born 
September, 1848, in the county of Caroline, Va. ; educated at Pine Hill 
and Aspen Hill academies, Louisa County, Va., and at the University 
of Virginia ; is a lawyer, and commenced the practice of his profession 
in 1874; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

WASHINGTON SENATORS. 
George Turner, Fusionist, of Spokane, was born in Edina. ^{o., 
February 25, 1850; is a lawyer; Associate Justice of the Supreme 



540 Memorial Volume of 

Court for the Territory of Washington from July 4, 1884, till February 
15, 1886; was elected by Fusionists to the United States Senate, and 
took his seat March 4, 1897. 

Addison Gr. Foster, Eepubliean, of Tacoma, was born at Belcher- 
town, JMass., January 28, 1837 ; in 1873 removed to St. Paul, Minn., 
and engaged extensively in lumbering; in Washington has extensive 
lumber, coal, coke, packing-house and shipping interests; was elected 
to the United States Senate to succeed John L. Wilson, Kepublican. 
His term expires March 3, 1905. 

WASHINGTON REPRESENTATIVES. 

"Wesley L. Jones, Republican, was born near Bethany, 111., October 
9, 1863 ; educated at Southern Illinois College, Enfield, 111., and gradu- 
ated in 1885 ; read law in Chicago, and was admitted to the bar in the 
spring of 1886; located at North Yakima in 1889; elected to the 
Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Francis W. Cushman, Republican, was born May 8, 1867, at 
Brighton, Washington County, Iowa ; educated chiefly at the high 
school in Brighton and at the Pleasant Plain Academy, of Jefferson 
County, Iowa: in 1891 he moved to the State of Washington; Sep- 
tember 21, 1898, was unanimously nominated by the Republicans of 
Washington for the Fifty-sixth Congress upon a gold-standard plat- 
form, and elected. 

WEST VIRGINIA SENATORS. 

Stephen Benton Elkins, Republican, of Elkins, was born in Perry 
County, Ohio, September 26, 1841 ; graduated from the university of 
that State in the Class of 1860; admitted to the bar in 1864; removed 
to West Virginia, and devoted himself to business affairs; was 
appointed Secretary of War December 17, 1891; in February, 1894, 
was elected to the United States Senate to succeed Hon. Johnson N. 
Camden. 

Nathan Bay Scott, Republican, of Wheeling, was born December 
'18, 1842, in Guernsey County, Ohio; received a common-school edu- 
cation; was elected in 1882 to serve four years in the State Senate, 
and re-elected in 1886 ; elected to the United States Senate on January 
25, 1899. 



i 



American History. 54I 

WEST VIRGINIA REPRESENTATIVES. 

Blackburn Barrett Dovener, Eepublican, of First District, was 
born iu Cabell County, Va., April 20, 1842; studied law; admitted 
to the bar in 1873; elected as a representative of Ohio County in the 
Legislature of 1883 ; elected to the Fifty-fourth and' Fifty-fifth Con- 
gresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Alston Gordon Dayton, Eepublican, of Second District, was born 
in Philippi, Ya., October 18, 1857; graduated from the University 
of West Virginia in June, 1878; studied law, and was admitted to the 
bar October 18, 1878; elected' prosecuting attorney of Barbour County; 
elected to the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to 
the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

David E. Johnston, Democrat, of Third District, was born April 
10, 1845, near Pearisburg, Giles County, Va. ; received a common- 
school education; admitted to the bar in 1867; elected to the State 
Senate, served one term, resigned, and in 1880 was elected judge of the 
ninth judicial circuit; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Romeo Hoyt Freer, Eepublican, of Fourth District, was born in 
Trumbull County, Ohio, November 9, 1846; educated in the common 
schools of x^shtabula County; admitted to the bar in 1868; was assist- 
ant prosecuting attorney of Kanawha County from 1868 to 1871, and 
prosecuting attorney of the same county from 1871 to 1873; member 
of the Legislature in 1891; elected judge of the fourth judicial circuit 
in 1896; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

WISCONSIN SENATORS. 

John C. Spooner, Eepublican, of Madison, was born at Lawrence- 
burg, Dearborn Count}', Ind., January 6, 1843; removed to Wisconsin 
and settled at Madison June 1, 1859; graduated at the State Uni- 
versity in 1864; admitted to the bar in 1867; member of the Assembly 
from St. Croix County in 1872; elected United States Senator for the 
term beginning March 4, 1885 ; unanimously nominated in Eepublican 
caucus January 13, 1897, and duly elected January 27, 1897, United 
States Senator for the term beginning March 4, 1897. 



542 Memorial Volume of 

Joseph Very Quarles, Eepubliean, of Milwaukee, was born at 
Kenosha, Wis., December 16, 1843; studied law; district attorney for 
Kenosba County for six years, mayor of Kenosha in 187G, member of 
the Assembly in 1879, and' State Senator from 1880 to 1883; elected to 
the United States Senate to succeed John L. Mitchell, Democrat, and 
entered upon his duties March 4, 1899. 

WISCONSIN REPRESENTATIVES. 

Henry Allen Cooper, Republican, of First District, was born in 
Walworth County, Wis. ; graduated from the Northwestern University 
in 1873, and from Union College of Law, Chicago, in 1875; member 
of State Senate 1887-89 ; elected to the Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and 
Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Herman B. Dahle, Republican, of Second District, was born March 
30, 3 855, at Perry, Dane County, Wis. ; educated in the district schools 
and at Wisconsin State University ; elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Joseph Weeks Babcock, Republican, of Third District, was born 
in Swanton, Vt., March 6, 1850; attended school at Mount Vernon 
and Cedar Falls; removed from Iowa in 1881 and settled in Neeedah; 
elected to Wisconsin Assembly in 1888 and re-elected in 1890 ; elected 
to the Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and 
re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Theobold Otjen, Republican, of Fourth District, was born in 
West China, St. Clair County, Mich., October 27, 1851 ; was educated 
at the Marine City (Mich.) Academy; admitted to the bar at Ann 
Arbor; removed to Milwaukee, where he has since resided, engaged 
in the practice of law ; elected to the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Con- 
gresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Samuel S. Barney, Republican, of Fifth District, was born in 
Hartford, Washington County, Wis., January 31, 1846; educated in 
the public schools and at Lombard University, Galesburg, 111. ; admitted 
to bar in 1873; elected to the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, 
and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

James H. Davidson, Republican, of Sixth District, was born June 
18, 1858, in Colchester, Delaware County, N. Y. ; received a common- 



American- History. 543 

school education in the public schools and at Walton (X. Y.) Academy; 
graduated from the Albany Law School in 1884 ; subsequently removed 
to Green Lake County, Wis.; elected district attorney of (Jrecn Lake 
County in 1888; elected to the Fifty-fifth Congress, and re-elected to 
the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

John Jacob Esch, Republican, of Seventh District, was born near 
Xorwalk, Monroe County, Wis., March 20, 1861; educated at the Uni- 
versity of Madison; in 1886 entered the law department of the State 
University, and graduated in 1887; commissioned acting judge-advo- 
cate-general with the rank of colonel; elected to the Fifty-sixth Con- 
gress. 

Edward S. Minor, Republican, of Eighth District, was born in 
Jeiferson County, X. Y., in 1840; went with his parents to Wisconsin 
in 1845; received a public-school and academic education; was elected 
to the Wisconsin Assembly in 1877, and re-elected in 1880 and 1881 ; 
elected to the State Senate and served in that body in 1883 and 1885 ; 
elected to the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses, and re-elected 
to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

Alexander Stewart, Republican, of Ninth District, was born Sep- 
tember 12, 1829, in Province of New Brunswick, and received a com- 
mon-school education at that place; in 1849 he removed, engaging in 
the lumber business; elected to the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Con- 
gresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

John J. Jenkins, Republican, of Tenth District, was born in 
Weymouth, England, August 20, 1843; settled in Baraboo, Wis., in 
June, 1852; attended the common schools a few terms; appointed 
United States attorney of the Territory of Wyoming by President 
Grant in March, 1876; elected to the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Con- 
gresses, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth Congress. 

WYOMING SENATORS. 

Francis E. Warren. — Born in Hinsdale, Mass., June 20, 1844; 
received an academic education; moved to Wyoming 1868; territorial 
governor 1884-85; again appointed governor by President Harrison 
and served till the territory was admitted as a state, when he was elected 



54:4 Memorial Volume of 

governor; was elected to the United States Senate, N"ovember 18, 1890, 
took his seat December 1, 1890, and served until the expiration of term, 
March 3, 1893; was re-elected January 33, 1895. 

Clarence Don Clark, Republican, of Evanston, was born at Sandy 
Creek, Oswego County, N. Y., April 16, 1851; was educated in the 
common schools, and at the Iowa State University ; admitted to the bar 
in 1874; removed to Evanston, Wyo. ; prosecuting attorney for Uinta 
County four years; elected to the Fift3^-first and Fifty-second Con- 
gresses; elected January 33, 1895, to the United States Senate for 
the term ending March 3, 1899, to fill the vacancy caused by the 
failure of the Legislature to elect in 1893-93 ; and on January 24, 1899, 
was re-elected for the term beginning March 4, 1899. 

WYOMING REPRESENTATIVE-AT-LARGE. 

Frank Wheeler Mondell, Republican, of Newcastle, was born in 
St. Louis, Mo., November 6, I860; received instruction from a private 
tutor; settled in Wyoming in 1887, and engaged in the development 
of coal mines and oil property; elected mayor of Newcastle in 1888; 
elected to the Fifty-fourth Congress, and re-elected to the Fifty-sixth 
Congress. 



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